My First Coin Show
I started collecting Wheat pennies and Lincoln pennies just for a way to keep busy and keep my interests in collecting alive. Since I have a home computer I decided to start looking for information on coins on the Web. I did a search on US Coins using Google and this brought up 19,000,000 hits so I read quite a few of articles and this made me more interested in collecting US coins. I also did a search on Coin Shows and looked at several sites and found out that there was one coin show coming to a town near me in a couple of months.
By the time the coin show was a month away I had several different coin collecting projects going on. I was collecting Mercury dimes, which I think are the most beautiful coins the US Mint made, Roosevelt dimes, Wheat/Lincoln pennies and Jefferson nickels.
So I decided to get ready for my first coin show. I created an Excel spreadsheet to list out the coins I needed to complete my sets. I also looked at the prices of these coins so I would have pretty good idea how much money I was going to have to spend to complete these sets. I realized pretty quickly that the Mercury dime collection would probably take more than one coin show to finish so I decided on taking about a hundred dollars with me.
The day finally arrived and I set out to the hotel where the coin show was going to be held. I printed out a map to get there just in case I got lost. When I got to the hotel I noticed there were signs pointing to the conference room where the show was being held. I walked to the entrance of the Coin show where I noticed there were several tables set up with magazines, pamphlets, and other information about coins, coin clubs, and meetings and other shows that were coming in the next few months.
I was drawn to a table that had a big case on it which contained quite a few silver and gold coins. A gentleman was selling tickets for a raffle for each hour some one could win one of the coins in the case. So I occasionally like to by a lottery ticket I decided I would purchase six tickets for five dollars. I put my name on the tickets with my phone number on them and slipped them in a big box to be drawn later. After this I stepped into the conference room where the show was.
It was unbelievable! There were close to fifty different tables with different dealers selling and trading coins. I started on my left and started looking at each table with coins and paper money filling up the spaces on the table. There were coins dating from the 1700s to the 2000s. I went around the room looking at the coins mesmerized by the glitter of coins. I gently reminded myself why I was there. I looked around and saw a dealer that had an assorted group of boxes that had the title of each coin that were in the boxes. Mercury dimes, Roosevelt dimes, Morgan Silver Dollars, and many more so I sat down with my list started to take out the Wheat pennies I needed and the Lincolns that I needed. I found out one of the 1922 Wheat pennies was more expensive than I thought but I bought it anyway.
I was soon going to different table filling my list of Roosevelt dimes and Jefferson nickels that I needed. I also bought some of the Mercury dimes I needed as well. I saw quite a few coins that I wanted but I held myself in check. I decided I would at least finish the Roosevelt dimes, Jefferson Nickels, and the pennies before I started on new sets. In this I succeeded and I was very proud of myself doing this. I felt like I had completed something worthwhile. I then decided to look for other coin sets I could start collecting for future coin shows. I picked out a few nice Kennedy halves, some really inexpensive Indian cents and some nice cameo quarters. I also find an inexpensive Liberty half in good condition and some nice Buffalo nickels.
After four hours and after spending close to sixty dollars I realized I was very thirsty so I stepped out of the glorious room and grabbed some of the magazines and other readable material and got a soft drink and sat at one of the tables in the middle of the hotel. I read some of the articles while I sat and drank. I also thought about the different people I had met that had similar interests and I thought how much fun that was. I was eager to get home and put all of my new found coins into their perspective albums. As I left the hotel I made a promise to myself that I would come to at least one coin show a year to keep my coin collecting in perspective.
When I got home I showed my son and daughter what I had and they helped me put the coins in their albums. They were thrilled at so much “money” especially at the silver Mercury dimes. There was one more surprise in store for me that came of my visit to the coin show. I received a phone call that I had won one of the Silver Dollars in the raffle. I received it in the mail a few days later. It was an uncirculated 1992 Silver Eagle dollar. I was so surprised! My first coin show was full of pleasant and positive memories that I was and am forever hooked to coin collecting.
