WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: JUNE 29, 2014

The big event for me this week was a visit to the Whitman Baltimore Coin Expo the afternoon of Friday, June 27, 2014. I parked my car around 11:15am, stopped for a quick lunch, then entered the convention center and made a beeline for room 301, where Q. David Bowers and Robert Galiette were speaking on the subject of their recent book, U.S. Liberty Head $20 Double Eagles: The Gilded Age of CoInage.

Galiette was at the podium when I arrived; Dave Bowers was seated in the front row answering a question about the small change panic of 1862. I took a seat behind him in the second row. Among the audience were Charles Morgan of CoinWeek, David Schenkman, and Heather and Eric Schena.

Afterwards copies of their book were given to all attendees, which Dave and Rob kindly autographed. I'd never met Rob before, so I introduced myself and thanked him for making a great book full of interesting historical and economic background on the place of these coins in the nation's history. He's an avid E-Sylum reader.

After chatting with several people while waiting for Dave to free up, he and I walked down the hall to speak with Vicken Yegparian in the auction room, who directed us to where to find Stack's Bowers Galleries President Brian Kendrella. I sat down with Brian for a while and had a nice discussion about the SBG web site and a web project of my own that I've been working on.

I rushed back to room 301 where David Schenkman was just starting his presentation on Trade Token Denominations. I took a seat in the second row behind Simcha Kuritsky. Also present were Simcha's fellow Maryland State Numismatic Association members Bryce Doxzon and Scott Barman, all clad in their red MSNA jackets. Eric Schena ran the projector while Dave treated the audience of about 25 people to a delightful discussion on tokens.

Partway through Dave discussed the recent E-Sylum quiz based on images from his talk. He gave The E-Sylum a plug as the "greatest bargain in numismatics," a lengthy weekly newsletter with great news and information, all for free. He invited people to see me afterwards to sign up, and two of them did, which is how I got to meet new subscribers Carol Fink and Harold Roberts.

Speaking of our quiz, no one wrote in to identify the issuer of the 1 2/3 cent token pictured last week. Dave figured this would be a tough one. Here's the answer, as revealed in Dave's presentation.

Trade Token: The Smokehouse / Billiards (location unknown)

Dave supplied the above images of the complete token. He writes:

Afterwards I went down to the bourse floor. I waved and said hello to Julian Leidman at his usual table right near the entrance. He was busy with a customer, so I moved on. Tony Terranova was busy as well, but I came back and chatted with him a bit. Missing was his usual next-door-neighbor John Kraljevich, who was missing from the show due to the ANA Summer Seminar.

It seemed everyone was busy; the aisles were pretty full and I never did get a chance to sit with Charles Morgan. I did talk briefly with E-Sylum advertisers Steve Hayden and Wayne Herndon.

On the way out I met up again with Dave Schenkman and Heather and Eric Schena. After chatting a bit I went looking for Len Augsburger. I found him in a conversation with Robert Galiette and Kevin Flynn. I horned in (or tried to), but Rob was doing all the talking. In a good way, though - he's effusive and enthusiastic about the numismatic hobby we share.

Len adds:

Seeking a free Wi-Fi connection Len and I walked over to Harborplace and took a seat in a food court area. He bought us some drinks and nacho chips from Moe's while I set up my computer. I gave him a walkthrough of slides for the "Future" part of my "Past, Present and Future of Online Numismatics" talk at the NBS General Meeting later this summer. By the time we wrapped up it was after 5pm, and Len had to get back to the bourse floor.

As for me, I was done and ready to get home to my family. But next time I won't be in such a hurry, because trying to get out of Baltimore on a Friday rush hour was a nightmare. I crawled thru traffic and was only just hitting the highway when I got hungry and decided to stop for dinner. When I got back on the highway the road was wide open all the way home to Virginia.

Eric and Heather had the right idea - they went to the ballgame Friday and stayed the night in a hotel. Afterwards Eric told me about one of his purchases at the show, a very nice Labor Exchange note from Atlanta, GA (a collecting interest we share). He sent me these images:

Eric adds:

Me, too. Meeting up with people is something you just can't do online. I'm already looking forward to my next coin show, likely the August ANA show.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
BOOK REVIEW: U. S. LIBERTY HEAD $20 DOUBLE EAGLES (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n17a05.html)
BOOK REVIEW: U. S. LIBERTY HEAD $20 DOUBLE EAGLES (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n18a04.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web