Steve's week at the ANA show: Day 1

This year at the ANA show (more formally known as the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money), I'm here for the entire week. It's a bit of a marathon, but one that I'm happy to tackle each year. While the official show is August 5 to 9, there's a pre-show several days before the main ANA show.

This blog is the first of a series which will take you along with me during my week at the ANA show. This year at the ANA show (more formally known as the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money), I'm here for the entire week. It's a bit of a marathon, but one that I'm happy to tackle each year. While the official show is August 5 to 9, there's a pre-show several days before the main ANA show. This blog is the first of a series which will take you along with me during my week at the ANA show.

For me, Monday (August 4) is my first full day at the show. It's primarily dealer set-up day, so I often take advantage of the lot viewing offered by the show's auctions — this year Stack's Bowers Galleries and Heritage Auctions are co-official auctioneers — to look at coins and sharpen my eye. It's a chance to get "up close and personal," so to speak, with many of the rare coins that we've previewed in the months before the ANA show. It also provides a lot of ideas for future Market Analysis columns and stories, allowing me to go beyond the published description and I'm able to make connections and in tandem with the prices realized, identify trends in the marketplace.

As I tell students when I teach coin grading, the best way to understand how to grade coins is to look at thousands of them and the ANA auctions provide an excellent opportunity for that. I started the morning by looking at Heritage's Platinum Night offerings (that auction is Thursday, August 7) and then moved to its more general U.S. offerings (which start on Tuesday, August 5). That afternoon I moved to Stack's Bowers Rarities Night lots, which will be sold Wednesday, August 6.

Admittedly, it's a bit numbing, and I have tremendous respect for dealers who can sit and look at coins for hours on end.

There's something incredibly exciting about holding million dollar rarities like one of two 1861 Paquet reverse $20 Coronet double eagles or an 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar.

I checked out the new Coin World booth, which looks fantastic, and took note of the huge amusement park style partitions that have been erected outside of the ANA convention hall to (hopefully) contain the crowds that are anticipated for the launch of the new dual-dated 2014-W gold Kennedy half dollar on Tuesday, August 5. The launch will keep all of us busy tomorrow and looking forward to sharing it with our readers.

Tonight's the Professional Numismatists Guild dinner which is always a pleasant evening where dealers are recognized for their contributions to the hobby. It's a reminder that without dealers, there wouldn't be an ANA show.

Until tomorrow,

Steve

sroach@coinworld.com   

Read the rest of Steve's blog posts from the ANA: