SMALL SHOWS, LIVELY NUMISMATIC ACTIVITY

Melissa and I are just back from an actual coin show! We set up at the show in Gettysburg, PA this past weekend, and it went quite well. Virtually everyone in attendance followed the specific rules in place, and business was brisk...to say the least. Collector traffic was down significantly, but that was actually a good thing - the room wasn't nearly as crowded as it would have otherwise been. Such a concept would have been truly lousy in pre-COVID times, but it is a comforting thing these days (it is indeed amazing how perspective can change). It was therefore important that the folks who were there were active. And they were. Collectors of all sorts descended on the dealers and swept the room pretty much clean. And that was after all the dealers in attendance swept the room clean before them, at dealer set-up.

I continue to be struck by how many collectors we once knew - both through our online channels and at shows - have returned to collecting. We've picked up lots of retail customers that are truly new to us, but those returning to collecting are numerous, and returning in a serious way, in our experience. That is perhaps the best news I've heard on the coin front...ever! It is really great to be able to renew old relationships, and even better to be able to form new ones. And this we did at Gettysburg as well. Several times we heard, "this is my first coin show", and those folks were buying. One of those guys bought a 1916-D dime in NGC G4 CAC from us, and was like a kid in a candy store. It was a coin he'd wanted for his whole collecting life, which may have been just a few months! Yes, we sold lots of gold and silver too, but we didn't sell anything that was truly bullion (we don't even have anything that is truly bullion, except on rare occasion). Mostly, we sold the kind of coins that are listed on our website...excellent quality type, better date material, early coins by die variety, beautifully toned coins - generally the coins you don't find everywhere. It is my considered opinion that the retail, collector-coin market is very much alive and well. And, improving as we speak.

I don't know what the future looks like generally, but I do now have a pretty good idea of what coin shows will or should look like over the next several months (at least). I've been to a few small-ish shows over the past couple months (almost all as a buyer...we only had a table at Gettysburg), and they've all been good, productive shows, run within the confines of what we have to work with. Rob Brunner's show in Knoxville, TN has been great for me, but more than that, it has been good for the dealers and collectors in that area. I've been twice - the first Saturday in July and September - and have been comfortable both times. Almost everyone followed protocols, and with decreased density in the room, both dealers and collectors, it was easy enough to maintain proper distance. Likewise with Paul Padget's show in Cincinnati in July. They used a room that was twice the normal size, had fewer dealers, and much less public. I felt comfortable there the whole time. Same for the Ohio State show near Columbus over Labor Day weekend. The spacing in the room wasn't quite as generous as some of the others, but it was good enough for me to feel comfortable there. I'm not suggesting that we simply get back to "business as usual", and I'm absolutely not suggesting that high-risk people should run to the nearest coin show, but I do think we can put on smaller shows in very reasonable and realistic ways...and that you can go if you decide that it's the right thing for you.

Next up on our show schedule is Ernie Botte's New Hampshire Coin and Currency Expo, to be held in Manchester, New Hampshire in early October.

To visit the DKRC website, see:
https://www.davidkahnrarecoins.com/

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