This weekend I traveled down south to Raleigh, NC, for the 2017 Raleigh Money Expo, which as some of you saw from my previous thread would be my first coin show in a number of years.
I felt pretty confident and prepared thanks to everyone's advice from that thread and my past experiences. With high hopes and my tight college budget in tow, I made the trek down for the show's first day, and it did not disappoint. Below will be my observations from the show, followed by pictures of my purchases. (I read previous show reports on CCF to get a sense of how others have done them.)
First off, a huge hat tip to the Raleigh Coin Club for putting on this show in the first place!
I found out about it through the
ANA's list of events, and then read up more on the club's website.
The show was held in a large exposition center that was relatively easy to find thanks to some signage. Registration was a breeze and the club members overseeing it were very kind and friendly. Police officers were also present so I had no worries about safety (hat tip to them for putting up with us numismatists btw
).
The bourse was in one giant show floor that was kind of dim, but virtually every dealer had many lamps that made up for it. They were aligned in rows with large tables, plenty of chairs, and wide aisles, so no jostling around. Sadly I did not have a lot of time, so I had to skip the exhibits. Hopefully any other CCF members who attended can shed some light on those! The floor was not particularly crowded while I was there, and on several occasions I was a dealer's first transaction, so I got the sense from them that business was a bit slow to start. Yet it was also the morning of the first day when most people were undoubtedly at work/school, so that observation comes with a grain of salt.
I initially planned to browse first and then go back to tables that stood out, but I ended up just going up and down all the aisles once. This method worked out well surprisingly. Virtually all of the dealers were friendly, helpful, and willing to haggle on prices, even if I did not make a purchase. I had nice conversations with a number of them as I meandered along, looking through their inventories and making deals, and before I knew it a couple hours had slipped by.
All throughout the bourse, the selection of coins overall was pretty good. Among the most frequent appearances were a ton of slabbed Morgans, lots of early copper, and plenty of bullion. I drooled over some Double Eagles, Chain Cents, and a wholesome circulated 1895-O
Barber dime that I thought about asking to see before I remembered that there was a reason it was not on my list.
As for the coins I was actually looking for and could afford (mostly
Barber dimes,
Washington quarters, and Canadian cents), my observations were as follows:
-The
Barber dime selection was not very good, but I've come to accept that as standard. Most dealers either had very low circulated grades (AG/G) or a few slabbed MS showcase pieces. Almost everything in between was either cleaned, had questionable surfaces, or had common damage (i.e. plenty of scratches) that came with their being workhorses of commerce back in the day. Wholesome, problem-free circulated examples were few and far between.
-The
Washington quarter selection was much better, but they also tended to fall into a spectrum of either heavily circulated pieces or MS examples. Thankfully, I was generally looking for (and could afford) the latter, but it still took time to pick out problem-free, lustrous coins.
-World coins in general were well represented around the floor, so I did not have much trouble finding Canadian large cents, although early small cents were less common. Most of these were in mid- to high-range circulated grades, which was exactly what I was looking for. Problem-free pieces were not very common, however.
I ended up walking away the happy buyer of several coins.
In hindsight, I should have taken a smaller list of coins to explicitly look for so that I could have focused on a reasonable number of dates/MM's while also keeping my options open if I saw anything else I needed. At least I know what to do next time!
Overall, the show was well-organized, the dealers and staff were very friendly, and the selection was good. I was quite happy with the results. If any CCF members/readers are also members of the Raleigh Coin Club, great job on a great show!
By this point, if I haven't put you to sleep with my long post, then you're probably wondering when I'll stop writing and upload some pictures...so here are my findings:
1894-O
Barber dime:
1914
Barber dime:
1914-S
Barber dime:
1941
Washington quarter:
1943
Washington quarter:
1881-H Canadian large cent:
1907 Canadian large cent:
1921 Canadian cent:
1980
SBA Souvenir Set in OGP (not pictured)
Thank you for reading!
Posted 06/05/2017 3:21 pm
