Denver Coin Expo May 17/18/19 = Anybody Going?

I'm taking my 8 year old and buddy from work on Sunday. Our first coin show so we're pretty excited!

Since it's our first show, I'm mainly going for the experience but I will also be the hunt for mint wheaties. If I find a decent EF 24d or 10s, 11s, 12s, 13s I may go for that as well but we'll see. My son will probably want to get something but what, I have no idea but I want to be able to let him choose something special just for him.

What kind of battle plan do you guys usually have when going to shows like this?

That's really good advice actually acloco - remember you are at a gathering of people trying to sell you stuff. :)

Attended for a little over an hour today.

Overall, impressed. Wish there were more dealers, but there were quite a few. Dealers from Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Utah, Colorado (of course)...are some of the few that I noticed.

Bourse floor was busy at noon on Friday, so, I imagine that is a good thing. I only passed one or two dealers that did not have at least one, if not two people at their booth, talking, trading, or buying coins.

One gent and his wife, whom NOBODY would ever pick out of a crowd....ever....as being a numismatist, had some very impressive coins.

One dealer, had some VERY impressive coins in his cases. No, not dollar wise, but quality wise. HE definitely had an eye for quality, as his inventory showed this. Five large display cases full of quality...and fairly priced, IMHO.

One of the nicest people that I bought a coin from, is a dealer, disguised as a numismaticaniac. Yes, I spelled that right. He was just sitting down from a tour on the floor, and was very happily laying down a couple of raw and slabbed coins on his table. No, not in a hurry to get them priced, but excited about the treasures that he had just found. Gent was 60+ years old and his smile was ear to ear. He remarked...."I have got to quit spending money". It was rather fun just to see him smile....literally...like a 10 year old finding a true treasure.

My purchases? A 1909 S Lincoln - MS66 or 67 red. Beauty of a slug of copper....um...well...because that is what it is. A copper round. :)

I did scare up an MS64ish BN 1928 D Lincoln, along with two 1909 Philly mint (NON VDB), and a 1950 D MS66 ANACS (older, black label) Lincoln.

I did not see many colonials. A Feuchtwanger cent is the only item that comes to mind.

There was one dealer who had a small selection of UNC slabbed Washington's. Most, if not all, were in PCGS rattlers.

One unnamed dealer, whom I have dealt with before, I believe, is a severe coin doctor. He had quite a few coins in his display cases....that there is NO WAY those coins look THAT good...without being in a slab. Because they will never make it into a problem free slab. I viewed a 1920 P Lincoln Cent, that was SO bright in copper color, it looked like somebody just opened a new role...as in 2013 RED cents. Very dissappointing to see this.

His trick is....no grade on it. Just a price. So, nobody can actually go after him legally, because he does not grade, just prices the product for sale. When a person asks what grade does he believe this coin is...he replies...."well, that is a $25 coin"....thereby sidestepping the grade. He advertises, a small ad, in at least one numismatic publication.

Well, as for me, I thought it was very educational and fun. I went yesterday from 10 to 1 and I would bet there were no more than 100 people there. Some tables had already shut down. I picked up about eight BU wheaties that were 'fair' in price but I feel like I could have done better on ebay. However, getting to inspect in my hand and choose what I wanted, I was happy to pay a dollar or two more for them. One older dealer and I had a great conversation about the hobby and his personal history and that alone was worth the price of admission.

Now my son had a total BLAST. Almost every table I visited the dealer gave him a free coin of some kind. He ended up with 26 and I think we paid about two bucks for the ones we did pay for! Haha. He loved going through some of the foreign buckets and picking out the cool looking coins with odd shapes or holes or colors. At one point we decided to look for the smallest coin we could find and he ended up buying an old novelty Nixon Penny that is about 2cm in diameter.

Other highlights included holding a 1955 double die Lincoln in a flip ($2250) and looking at it through a loupe, drooling over one dealers slabbed and toned Morgans (it was like looking at a metallic rainbow in a case), and the brisket sandwich I had for lunch. :)

Over all for sure worth $3 but I will say that I am still too new to the hobby to be able to take advantage of good deals if there are any to be found because I was just too overwhelmed. I could probably still do just fine buying from the bay or other resources for my Lincolns but meeting the people and hanging out with a bunch of great coins was surely fun.

Great reports from everybody.

After my purchases, I thought this was kind of funny actually...after I perused and inquired about the inventory of, at least, 100 of the dealers present:

The ONE dealer, after viewing his offerings, about half slabbed and the others graded by him, was the ONLY dealer who was consistent in grading and color. But, alas, he did not have a Plain.

I did find 9 different 09 Plain to choose from. NONE were in slabs. One was obviously cleaned. Four were overgraded significantly (just because there is a little RED....does not mean a coin is UNC), three of these were priced rather high. Two of the remaining had detracting spots on both sides. Three came home with me. Of the three, one is a nice 63/64 BN with hints of red - price was $5. The other two are red (not blazing red) and were priced at 15 and 33. These will grade 63/64. So, the hunt continues.

The dealer with the rainbow of coins on the table....oh my...needed sunglasses!


Any of you local to Denver? Are there any local coin clubs? Would be fun to travel to another town/city and attend a coin club meeting. For the size of the town that I live in, we have a great time. There is ALWAYS some NICE coins shown, sometimes traded/bought/sold.

Fayette1800 - Maybe another site member has more info on these:

http://denvercc.anaclubs.org/ (Meeting on May 30, 2013)

http://frontrange.anaclubs.org/