By Bill Shamhart – NumismaticAmericana.com

I just returned home after a short 1 1/2 flight from Milwaukee, and thought I’d write about the Central States Numismatic Society’s show that was just held. First off let me say that this year marks my 30th year as a Life Member of the CSNS. And I’ve attended at least that many shows of theirs. But this one was different.

I arrived on Tuesday to look at the inventory of some of my contacts, as I usually do. Not much to report there. I know it sounds like a broken record, but really nice coins aren’t available like one would think. Basically a wasted day. Centralstates2010Homepage On to Wednesday, PNG day. I was able to find a few morsels, but I sold at least two coins for every one that I bought. For the first time in a long time, every time I sold a coin I asked myself when (and how) was I going to replace it. Let’s give PNG day a B-. But it ended on a good note at a great restaurant: STANFORDS.

Thursday was the “official” set-up day for Central States. All dealers. All day. Unless of course the collectors wanted to pay a ridiculous fee of $75.00 for a “professional pre-view” badge. Which in my opinion was a bad move on the show management’s part. Serious collectors may have, or may not have, been at the PNG day and expected to attend the “show” the next day, only to find this arrangement. Every dealer we spoke with thought this was a horrible idea. I must say I agree with them. First off, no where was this publicized. Nobody knew of this move until they got to Milwaukee. Hopefully the board of Central States will learn a lesson from this blunder and NEVER do something like this again.

So…how was the show after the public got in? Good. No, really good. We saw many familiar faces, met some new ones, and sold coins. Gem type coins and Commemoratives (both silver and gold) were in demand. Several collectors looked at pieces, said they might come back (and they did) only to find their items of interest already in the hands of another. I have always said, and will continue to say, that the time to buy the “right” coin is when you see it. I’m not talking about an impulse buy, or maybe a coin you have a passing interest in, but that special one. The one that you’ve been looking for for a long time. I know that when I see a great coin, I know that I will be buying it. It is just a matter of negotiating price. Collectors should learn that trait. Good coins sell themselves, and quickly.

The membership of the Central States Numismatic Society is a diverse one. Coins, paper money, medals and tokens, and Americana. There were collectors at this show looking for it all. In addition to our rare coin sales, we sold quite a bit of Numismatic Americana. Original memorabilia for U.S. Commemorative coinage was in “big” demand. In fact, we sold all that we brought. Items from the 1896/1900 election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan were also sought out. It’s great to speak with collectors and hear the “passion” in their voice when they talk. It reminds me of why I do what I do. (more…)

Gold remains dominant in surging rare coin market; 1921 Saint-Gaudens, Ex: Norweb, leads all lots with $218,500

With the final tallies for Heritage’s April 28 to May 3 Milwaukee Central States Numismatic and Currency auctions in at more than $20 million jointly – $16.9 million in rare U.S. Coins and $3.1 million in rare currency – the totals of the two auctions, in combination with the previous week’s Chicago International Coin Fair World Coin auction – a $5.2 million event – made for a 10 day stretch that totaled more than $25 million in total for the company. All prices include Buyer’s Premium.

“We continue to see great prices across all categories, with gold simply dominating,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage. “The economy is definitely improved, so we saw less volume as collectors don’t absolutely need to sell. That said, however, the market continues to climb past the previous record 2007-2008 levels on many coins.”

The rare U.S. coins portion of CSNS saw a superb 89% of lots sold by value and 92% by total number of lots, contested by just more than 7,250 bidders, while the rare currency sessions saw a highly respectable 86% of lots sell by value and 94% by total lots, with 1,915 bidders vying for the offerings.

The top lot in CSNS was the Select 1921 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle MS63 PCGS, Ex: Norweb, an historic absolute and condition rarity with few peers in the world of numismatics, which brought $218,500

“We continue to see great prices across all categories, with gold simply dominating,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage.

“Gold currently rules, and the king is Saint-Gaudens,” said Rohan, “and the 1921 Saint-Gaudens double eagle is a premier rarity in the series, ranking as the third rarest regular issue, behind only the famous and ultra-rare 1933 and 1927-D examples. The price that this very smart collector paid for this amazing and famous coin is money very well spent.” (more…)

We were VERY surprised at how the show ended up for us. But then our expectations were small. It took a tremendous effort to make things happen.

Arriving on Tuesday, we immediately did business within 5 minutes of arriving at the hotel. Since everyone was scattered around different hotels, activity was limited until set up began. At CSNS they have a PNG Day. So as usual us lesser folk had wait outside while the mighty members of PNG set up. Once allowed in, true to form for PNG days, activity was non existent. Many dealers got spooked fearing the entire show could be lame. We feel very strongly these PNG days add nothing to a show and actually hurt momentum.

Thursday was dealer set up day. Since there had been a full PNG Day and the night before PNG set up, the majority of dealers were ruffled by the fact the CSNS people did not allow any public in until Friday. If you wanted in Thursday, you had to pay $75.00. We heard one angry collector say he’d much rather go tip cows.

However, a funny thing happened during regular dealer set up: activity started to happen. We can’t say there was a rush, but we saw signs of coins selling. By the end of the day, we had done some significant sales and we spoke to others who had seen some life too. When the public was allowed in Friday-there was activity! We were totally surprised at how many collectors did show up Friday. In the morning there was a light buzz. Buying was not aggressive, but you could sell a coin here and there.

The biggest problem Legend had: BUYING. Yes, this is broken record: THERE ARE NO NICE, FRESH, COINS TO BUY! On Friday evening as the show closed, we tallied up our buying on the floor: $93,000.00-of which ONE coin was $50,000.00. Each day dealers would ask each other: did you buy anything? We know this lack of nice coins made many collectors leave the show earlier than they had anticipated.

One huge positive note: dreck was finally being bought! Since the floor was so dry, dealers realized they needed to make a living. So the intelligent soles who knew better lowered yet again the prices of their dreck and made the pieces more attractive. Two of our stealth sales team each sold an expensive coin (over $50,000.00) that we have had in our inventory for a year! We knew this would happen eventually. (more…)