WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: MARCH 3, 2018

While the Annandale Coin show came off quite normally, the setup was anything but. Wayne Herndon runs the show at the Northern Virginia Community College campus in Annandale. Setup takes place Friday night so all the tables, lights and cases can be available for the dealers first thing Saturday morning.

Well, the day before was when the Nor'easter came to Virginia. While we didn't get any of the snow that hit states to our north, the winds were fierce. Schools and government offices were closed Friday. Our neighborhood was littered with roofing shingles, downspouts, tree limbs and several fallen trees. Several communities in the area were without power for 15 hours or more.

And since the Community College was closed Friday, show setup had to wait. Our sons work part time for Wayne and had helped set up the last show. So the three of us got up before the crack of dawn and reported to the event hall at 5am. I pitched in myself for a while, pushing carts of exhibit cases and putting plastic table cloths on dealer tables. I later described that task as the opposite of playing a round of golf - I had to get as many tablecloths on as possible "without getting a hole in one".

Later I was dispatched to buy donuts for the dealers and while I was at it bought breakfast for the three of us. The sight of thirteen dozen Colossal Donuts from the local supermarket inspired my son to snap a photo of the trunk of my car.

By then the boys were done with their work - the hall was set up and dealers were arriving. We had our breakfasts and at 8am I drove them back home, returning again to the show by 9:30 for my usual chore of setting up for the Kids event.

I moved a few tables in the room and laid out twenty auction lots. I set up the registration table and laid out a pile of donated coin books and folders. Mike Packard had agreed to be our guest speaker, and he was the next to arrive. In a surprise, Tom Kays arrived next - he had been scheduled to be at a different show in Fredericksburg, but the winds had snapped a huge shopping mall sign that dangled over Rt. 95 and closed the highway. Rather than sit in traffic he came over to Annandale.

Luckily Tom had some additional donated material for our auction and added to the sale. As kids and parents arrived I registered them and gave them their auction dollars. One returnee was Savannah, a sharp young lady about the age of my own daughter. She had part of her hair dyed green. "Wasn't it purple last time?", I asked. (It was).

Registration table image courtesy Tom Kays

We ended up with about 15 kids and an overflowing room packed with parents and guests as well. Representatives from the Fairfax Coin Club discussed their upcoming meetings and invited everyone to come by. We pulled some names for random drawings and distributed two nice jigsaw puzzles picturing rare coins - a 1794 dollar and a Brasher Doubloon.

Mike did a great job presenting an overview of U.S. Colonial coins to the audience. He passed around slabbed examples of colonials including a Rosa Americana. Mike asked a bunch of quiz questions along the way, and the kids were amazing - only a couple of the harder ones stumped them. Here are some photos by Tom.

LEFT: Wayne Homren and Mike Packard standing
RIGHT: auction lot viewing

Here's a shot I took of Mike presenting.

I called the auction and Tom was the runner, collecting auction dollars for winning lots. It seemed to go very well. At the end we sold coins from a treasure box to anyone who still had auction dollars burning a hole in their pocket. I had to duck out to make it to my daughter's basketball playoff game, but Tom handled the cleanup. It was a rewarding experience - the kids are great budding numismatists.

Wayne Homren, Editor

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