FUN Starts Year Right By David C. Harper
January 18, 2008
Good business at the Florida United Numismatists
convention Jan. 10-13 makes just about everyone an optimist
as the year 2008 opens. The usual club meetings, educational
presentations and dinners occurred, but the true center of
attention was the bourse floor activity and the official Heritage
auction.
The buzz, which is the noise made by a crowded
bourse floor with a high activity level, was clearly evident
Thursday through Saturday. There was also some reluctance
to vacate the floor as the 7 p.m. closing time neared on the
first two days.
"It was a barnburner," said Fred
Schwan, a paper money dealer from Port Clinton, Ohio.
He ticked off the components for the show:
"Great time, good business, research discoveries, fellowship;
it was everything." He pointed out that a Military Payment
Certificate specimen set sold for $115,000, including the
buyer's fee, and for him it was the headline item of the Heritage
sale.
"What was hot (on the floor) is plastic,"
he said. "Holders, third-party graded stuff is really
moving."
Brad Schiff of Pittsburgh's Cybercoins, said,
"It was really good. The public came in. The noise in
the room was loud. This one was smokin'. They brought the
people in."
He said everything was strong across the board
and then specifically cited albums, modern commemorative gold,
Morgan dollars, paper money, bullion, silver bars and medieval
coins.
"I can't imagine anyone criticizing this
show," his father Ted Schiff said.
"With the way silver and gold have been
going up, it has been very positive," said Mary Sauvain,
a numismatist with Long Island's New World Rarities. "The
public is coming in looking for coins to buy to put back.
It's been a good show."
Western Springs, Ill., paper money dealer
Tim Kyzivat said, "It's been a very good show. Solid
business. I came here to sell and did well selling (and) buying
what came looking for me at the table."
"Business was wonderful," Anthony
Swiatek of Manhassett, N.Y., declared. "Currency was
selling. Gold was selling. Type was selling. Commems were
a bit slow."
"It was very well attended," said
Julian Leidman of Silver Spring, Md. "Lots of activity.
My sales weren't that good. Gold going up had the gold business
active."
Leidman also commented about the auctions.
He said there were "gargantuan prices on many, many coins."
Professional Numismatists Guild President Gary Adkins of Edina,
Minn., was pleased.
"I think the show was phenomenal,"
he said. He said attendance was great and that there is "a
lot of good support in the market."
Former American Numismatic Association president
Bob Campbell of All About Coins, Salt Lake City, Utah, was
clearly happy with his results.
"Anything different or stood out, those
were the things that sold the best," he said.
Campbell called these things "eye catchers"
that sold to first-time buyers. He said gold nuggets, police
badges and hobo nickels were examples of this kind of thing.
"That really surprised me," he said.
He also added a word of caution to the experience. He said
market participants were "all going around wondering
when the music is going to stop. Who doesn't get a seat when
the music stops?"
At Col. Steve Ellsworth's table, John Koebert
was assisting the Reston, Va., dealer. Koebert is the current
president of the Virginia Numismatic Association. He said,
"It was great, absolutely fabulous. We had a great show.
We did a lot in everything, half cents, large cents, bought
a very nice large cent. Sold some gold, some type stuff. No
one series outdid the others.
"Barber stuff seems to be doing very
well," Koebert continued. "Mint State Washington
quarters, Mint State Standing Liberty quarters. I can't think
of anything that didn't do well for us."
"I think it is the large attendance coin
show," Ellsworth said. "It sets the tone for the
year. If you want a barometer ... we're going to have a strong
2008."
Coin prices are rising rapidly. Dealers and
collectors have to chase them to get the deals done.
"We have to pay over price guide and
sell for much higher," Ellsworth said. "Nice dates,
key dates are stronger than the price guides indicate."
A relative newcomer to the nation's bourses
is Eric Werner of Lighthouse, a supply house in Hackensack,
N.J.
"It was good," he said. "We
had very good traffic. Our new products have been well accepted."
Though results weren't universally good, they
were about as close as it ever gets to the perfect coin show.
Whatever happens during the rest of 2008,
it has begun well.