By Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics

For the record, we expect Baltimore to be a VERY strong show. Why?

There have not been any major shows since Long Beach-which has been a forever 45 days ago. Gold has been on a tear lately. And there have been no major additions to the ever shrinking supply of nice coins.

We fully expect to see the usual suspects running wild looking to buy gold coins before the show begins. Sadly, they will still be cracking out and messing with the coins, but at least they are much more reserved in what they buy. We used to see guys buy coins for “crackout” if they felt they had even a 20% chance. Plus, some upgrades are not worth doing thanks to the new market order (inferior coins selling for so much less).

Still, many dealers who do deal in gold have sold a lot of gold all of the sudden (amazing, only a month ago the big firms wouldn’t even look at generics) and rare gold coins are now selling as strong as ever. Without a major show, it has been impossible to replace them. We’re not so sure the supply of anything at Baltimore will be sizeable.

The price of gold generally does NOT effect the rare coin market. However since there is just so little of anything out there, cash rich dealers will seize the opportunity and buy cool coins to put away because they seem cheap. The rise in gold is definately giving rare coins a bounce up right now.

A SUGGESTION OF WHAT TO BUY

Every day we get asked what should I be buying? As much as we hate making public recommendations, we are going to do so only because we can’t believe how some areas are simply lacking real demand and are selling way too cheap.
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Stack’s eagerly invites you to take part in our 74th Anniversary Sale, held this year in Baltimore, MD November 9-11, 2009. Stack’s is proud to celebrate our 74th year in the auction business by holding a star-studded auction event, replete with dazzling rarities at every turn. This auction will include U.S. coins, tokens, medals, and paper money, and includes selections from the Alan Bleviss Collection, the Jerry Byrne, Sr. Collection, the David Hickson Collection, the Chester L. Krause Collection, the Maryland Historical Society, the Mayflower Collection, the Minot Collection, the Robert A. Vlack Collection and much more!

Session One begins at 2:00pm on Monday, November 9th and leads off with U.S. tokens and medals, including over 500 lots from the Alan Bleviss Collection of Civil War Tokens.
U.S. medals offer a selection that is modest in size only. U.S. coins comprise roughly the second half of this session, and provide a truly wonderful array of Colonial and Early American issues, many of which hail from the Maryland Historical Society.
Federal issues hold their own among these exceptional colonial pieces, and small cents through nickels finish out the session, with lovely runs of Proof cents and nice quality Buffalo nickels capping it off.

Session Two begins at 2:00pm on Tuesday, November 10th and covers half dimes through double eagles, patterns, and gold commemoratives and offers exceptional pieces in every category, as well as fine runs of early examples in most denominations.

Session Three will commence on Wednesday, November 11 at 11:00am and will begin with silver commemorative coins. From here, we move through modern commemoratives, bullion issues, Proof and mint sets, and miscellaneous U.S. coins to the section of United States Currency.
Finishing out our 74th Anniversary Sale is the Robert A. Vlack Collection of Advertising Notes, comprising over 150 lots.

If you cannot attend in person, be sure to send us your bids by U.S. mail or fax, or place your bids on our website, either before the sale or by bidding online during the sessions. If you have yet to do so, take a moment to familiarize yourself with our new Stack’s at Home™ program, an improved online bidding experience which allows bidders to watch and participate in the auction in real time through live audio and video feed. You can find us at 123 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019 or at Box 1804, Wolfeboro, NH 03894. To contact us by phone, please use 800-566-2580 (NY) or 866-811-1804 (NH), or email us.
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