Last week I was at the Long Beach Coin Expo in California and found the market at the show to be very vibrant. The Long Beach Expo is a well-established coin show that has been conducting regular events since the 1960s. It has a great following by dealers and collectors, but has struggled during the past few years under the ownership of Coin Universe, the parent company of PCGS. However the company is innovative and has reached out to both the dealer community and collectors to boost attendance.
They succeeded! On opening morning there were several lines of people in the lobby waiting to register for the show. It took at least a half hour to get through each line. Aisles in the show were full of people and coin trading was active. There was also a buzz about the 1794 silver dollar that sold a few weeks earlier for $10 million. That sale has definitely helped market excitement and confidence, at least on the upper end of the coin market.
These large shows, the Long Beach Expo and others across the country, bring together the major players in the coin market – dealers and collectors or their representatives – and give a good read as to what the state of the market is. They are also places where a person can meet with many other people for a specific purpose in a short time or bring together several people to accomplish something definite.
In this regard, I am getting involved in a project regarding an 1804 Dollar and had lunch with Ron Guth, creator of PCGS CoinFacts, and I also had two lunches with Don Willis, PCGS President, to discuss the same project as well as a grading submission of an important high-end collection. I also met with David Hall and the owner of what is perhaps the greatest collection going in the country.
So if you are able to attend a major coin show, I suggest you take the opportunity to do so and connect with others, sharpen your numismatic skills, or to just get a good read on the coin market. If you work with a particular dealer who represents your interests, use his or her attendance at these major numismatic events to further your collecting and investing interests, whether it be buying or selling, submitting coins for grading, or gathering market information.
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