Here, as usual, is my brief, highly personal and biased, recap of my day at the Whitman Baltimore Coin Expo. This year I attended on the first day of the show, Thursday November 9. However, my day did not start out well. Around 10 PM the previous night, I started feeling dizziness and... let's just call it nausea (three times). I only managed a little sleep, and while the nausea abated the dizziness didn't seem to be getting any better. I had given up all thoughts of going to the show (I couldn't walk even a few feet without holding onto a support) and was starting to plan how to get to a medical office. Around 7 AM, I drank a glass of water, and almost immediately started to feel better. I drank another glass, rested in bed a bit more, and by 10 AM was completely better. It turns out I was just dehydrated, and the treatment is the obvious one. Dehydration is no joke, people, stay hydrated out there. I made it to teh show at 1 PM (doors opened to the public at noon). The show seemed overall busy, many tables had multiple visitors at a time. There were also some booths where the dealers had not yet set up, which I don't usually see on the second or third days of a show. I had a good talk with Michael Bezayiff, a dealer whom I hadn't met before but who proved very knowledgeable, even about some obscure Eastern series. Allen Berman was very engaging as always, though I had a scare at his table. I was examining a coin that was in an older, damaged plastic flip, and the flip had cracked at the bottom. Well, the coin fell out of the flip and onto the hard Convention Center floor with a loud "plink". Fortunately the coin was undamaged and Allen wasn't too upset, though he did suggest that I should always hold coins above the table. (I did end up buying the coin, see below.) I said that I almost had a heart attack, to which he replied "Please don't have a heart attack at my table, it would give me a bad reputation." One other interaction of note was at Harlan J. Berk's table, where they had two specimens of Colosseum sestertius on display, with a list price of $375,000 for the pair. (I am sure @David Atherton could tell us more about them.) They said I could photograph the coins, and even took them out of the cabinet so I could get better pics. (Though, remembering what happened at Allen Berman's table, I did not ask to hold the coins. ) Here are the beauties: I did notice that the hoard of tetradrachms of Tigranes II of Armenia is still being dispersed, but the prices are still too high for me to justify buying one. As usual, I spent most of my time (and money) with the ancients dealers, and towards the end wandered about in the world and US sections making a few small purchases. I left about 4:30 PM, taking just one short break around 3 for a quick snack and rehydration. Overall it was a good day, I spent most of my allotted budget and got some nice coins. And now, here is my haul for the day. First, my coins from Allen Berman. Top: A Parthian tetradrachm of Vologases IV (this is the coin I dropped on the floor) and small Parthian bronze of Phraates IV, and Sasanian drachms of Hormazd II and Kavad I (though Hormazd has a major head wound, he was cheerfully cheap). Bottom row is 4 "Kushan" coins Allen sold as a lot for $20- I am confident the three coppery-colored coins are in fact from Yaudheya, the darker is either late Kushan or one of the many Kushan-imitatives and requires further research: Some more ancients: Top row starts with two coins from Tamco Numismatics (bought as usual from minimally-ID'd "you pick" groups), trilingual drachm in the name of the Turco-Hephthalite king Vasu Deva, and an AE drachm of the Kushan king Wima Kadphises (I already had the far more common tetradrachm of his). Next is a silver hemidrachm of the Abbasid governors of Tabaristan, anonymous type, nicely rainbow-tomes, bought from Michael Bezayiff. Bottom row is four coins bought from a $10 junk box of Tiber Numismatics: AE in the style of Alexander the Great (either lifetime or shortly afterwards), Byzantine 20 nummi probably pre-reform of Justinian the Great, Roman provincial from Zeugma of some emperor who I'll have to figure out, and a Crusader coin of the famous Tancred. Finally, some modern coins. Top row is 4 Canadian large cents that are part of the Super Secret Side Project. Bottom row cost a total of $20: $6 each for the Barber quarters, and $1 each for the worn George V penny and the Hungarian 2 forint. I like the use of just the crown, and not the monarch's portrait, on the Hungarian coin as a tacit acknowledgement that it is only the symbols of monarchy that matter, not the actual person wielding them. So, I had a good day at the show. I ended up with just $2 of my allotted budget unspent and got some nice coins, including many that will require lots of fun attribution. Hope you enjoyed my recap, please let me know your experiences at the show.
Glad you're feeling better, and glad you enjoyed your day at Balto. I much enjoyed reading your exploits....... [edit to add] Notable writeup.
Great writeup, thanks for sharing! A good reminder of why live shows and coin clubs are so much fun (and educational, of course). Those Colosseum Sestertii are dazzling, especially the left one. I'd love to get a close look at them. The individual panels around the colosseum are engraved with miniature images of statues that are (at least in some cases) believed to have actually been present on the structure when it was completed. It's really hard to find high enough resolution photos of good enough specimens, but on some you can see what appear to be "Judaea Capta" type designs (e.g., triumphal quadriga, trophy, maybe palm tree, maybe captives...). Of course, it's hard to know what some of them are. I gotta start hitting the coin shows! COIN TAX: A Septimius Severus Priapus that I bought for $20 at the Chicago CICF show at least 10 years ago (but foolishly sold a couple years later, albeit at a significantly higher price): A coin purchased by "the AK Collection" at coin show Karlsruhe in 1968 (Germany): Some silver Antoniniani from the Dorchester Hoard purchased by Ken Bressett from Joe Powers, no doubt at the 1950 Boston Coin Show:
I have yet to physically attend a coin show. I guess I prefer staring at a white computer screen instead of flipping thru old binders.
Great write up and fantastic additions. It's a shame the Colosseum Sestertii isn't common enough or all of us to afford one. I'm surprised you like moderns.
