Chicago International Coin Fair report [long]

I took time off a busy schedule to make the scenic drive from East Kumquat
over to Milwaukee, then down I-294 to Rosemont, the host city of CICF for
the last few years. I really miss the old downtown location, where I
started attending this premier show in 1980. That makes this my 26th
attendance at this show, if my calculation is correct. One nice thing about
this new location is that there is a lot of room in the aisles, important
for those of us who are circumferentially enhanced.

The show lived up to my expectations. Everyone from Alexander Basok, with
his exotic Russian coins, to Jeff Zarit, with his top-quality, hard-to-find
material was there, along with a few first-time dealers. By the way, Jeff
startled me a bit when he revealed that he was a regular reader of this
newsgroup!

My first stop was the table of Kenn Hollister, d/b/a MONETA. He has been
buying a huge collection of type coins of the world, which has yielded a
fair amount of things that I haven't seen on the market, ever. It's always
satisfying to be able to finally check off some long-standing items from the
want-list. Jeff Means, d/b/a Enterprise coins, always has a slug of
double-row boxes, and one just never knows what lurks within. I daresay his
was the busiest table.

I always make it a point to stop by Al Boulanger's table, and figure I
really hit pay dirt this time. I managed to scarf up an English sixpence
dated 1573, a portrait coin of Elizabeth I. She was 40 years old in that
year, and her portrait - well, er, let's just say that I hope she had a
great personality! Now here's the surprising part: the coin is [gasp]
slabbed. I'm conflicted - I really want to crack it out and tumble it in my
hand. What does anybody think? I'm also still trying to determine if it is
"market graded" or not. Let's see, how many collar ruffles need to be
visible for what grade? And does roundness count?

Anybody on r.c.c. who collects ancients would not be disappointed at CICF
either. If anything, it seemed that there were more tables of ancients than
in previous years. I must confess, ancients intimidate me. I like looking
at them and reading about them, but I wonder if I am too far gone in the
direction of milled coinage. I did stop by antiquarian book dealer John
Burns' booth and plunked down a fair amount of moola for the classic title
Ancient Greek Coins, so maybe there's still hope for me. Across the room
was Jim Helin of N.I.C.S., who deals in supplies and new numismatic
publications. He had some copies of the 19th edition of Photograde, and I
brought one of those home to peruse. Maybe I'll figure out this grading
thing yet.

A few years ago I met Philip Kapaan of Germany, who has been sharing a table
with Dan Fruit of Milwaukee. For some reason he didn't bring many coins
this time, and the ones he had were mostly U.S.! He had an absolutely
delightful Liberty nickel that now resides in my Reverse type set. From
Germany yet, go figure. Philip regularly offers world coins on eBay as
pkkmgbr. He promised me that a new batch of 400 or so coins would go up in
a few days.

One anomaly was the booth of Stamps 'n' Stuff, who had several cases full of
U.S. coins, half cents through gold. One fellow sat there for over two
hours examining state quarters with a magnifing glass. Considering the cost
of parking and admission, I hope he found one of the rare Wisconsin
varieties to make it all worthwhile.

I've always had a fascination with the offerings of James D. King. All his
stock is in 2x2 envelopes, and one has to open each one up and tumble the
contents out into the hand. He has a fairly small but very wide-ranging
stock. There were three old copper Irish ha'pennies, dated 1681, 1747, and
1749 that somehow just leaped into my shopping cart. Likewise a copper 1675
Charles II British farthing was added to the haul for less than the price of
dinner for two at the Tour d'Argent in Paris. Wait a minute, everything
together cost less than dinner for two at that location.

My rating of this year's CICF: ***1/2 (there's always room for
improvement).

I hope I'm not sounding too much like Cliff Mishler!

Heezer

No, you won't start sounding like
Cliff until you tell us about your morning
walks and the places where you
had your meals. (smile face here).

Thanks for taking the time to write the report.
Much appreciated!
-JZ

"Heezer Bumfrool" heezerbumfrool[at]hotmail[dot]com wrote in message
...
I took time off a busy schedule to make the scenic drive from East Kumquat
over to Milwaukee, then down I-294 to Rosemont, the host city of CICF for
the last few years. I really miss the old downtown location, where I
started attending this premier show in 1980. That makes this my 26th
attendance at this show, if my calculation is correct. One nice thing
about this new location is that there is a lot of room in the aisles,
important for those of us who are circumferentially enhanced.

The show lived up to my expectations. Everyone from Alexander Basok, with
his exotic Russian coins, to Jeff Zarit, with his top-quality,
hard-to-find material was there, along with a few first-time dealers. By
the way, Jeff startled me a bit when he revealed that he was a regular
reader of this newsgroup!

My first stop was the table of Kenn Hollister, d/b/a MONETA. He has been
buying a huge collection of type coins of the world, which has yielded a
fair amount of things that I haven't seen on the market, ever. It's
always satisfying to be able to finally check off some long-standing items
from the want-list. Jeff Means, d/b/a Enterprise coins, always has a slug
of double-row boxes, and one just never knows what lurks within. I
daresay his was the busiest table.

I always make it a point to stop by Al Boulanger's table, and figure I
really hit pay dirt this time. I managed to scarf up an English sixpence
dated 1573, a portrait coin of Elizabeth I. She was 40 years old in that
year, and her portrait - well, er, let's just say that I hope she had a
great personality! Now here's the surprising part: the coin is [gasp]
slabbed. I'm conflicted - I really want to crack it out and tumble it in
my hand. What does anybody think? I'm also still trying to determine if
it is "market graded" or not. Let's see, how many collar ruffles need to
be visible for what grade? And does roundness count?

Anybody on r.c.c. who collects ancients would not be disappointed at CICF
either. If anything, it seemed that there were more tables of ancients
than in previous years. I must confess, ancients intimidate me. I like
looking at them and reading about them, but I wonder if I am too far gone
in the direction of milled coinage. I did stop by antiquarian book dealer
John Burns' booth and plunked down a fair amount of moola for the classic
title Ancient Greek Coins, so maybe there's still hope for me. Across the
room was Jim Helin of N.I.C.S., who deals in supplies and new numismatic
publications. He had some copies of the 19th edition of Photograde, and I
brought one of those home to peruse. Maybe I'll figure out this grading
thing yet.

A few years ago I met Philip Kapaan of Germany, who has been sharing a
table with Dan Fruit of Milwaukee. For some reason he didn't bring many
coins this time, and the ones he had were mostly U.S.! He had an
absolutely delightful Liberty nickel that now resides in my Reverse type
set. From Germany yet, go figure. Philip regularly offers world coins on
eBay as pkkmgbr. He promised me that a new batch of 400 or so coins would
go up in a few days.

One anomaly was the booth of Stamps 'n' Stuff, who had several cases full
of U.S. coins, half cents through gold. One fellow sat there for over two
hours examining state quarters with a magnifing glass. Considering the
cost of parking and admission, I hope he found one of the rare Wisconsin
varieties to make it all worthwhile.

I've always had a fascination with the offerings of James D. King. All
his stock is in 2x2 envelopes, and one has to open each one up and tumble
the contents out into the hand. He has a fairly small but very
wide-ranging stock. There were three old copper Irish ha'pennies, dated
1681, 1747, and 1749 that somehow just leaped into my shopping cart.
Likewise a copper 1675 Charles II British farthing was added to the haul
for less than the price of dinner for two at the Tour d'Argent in Paris.
Wait a minute, everything together cost less than dinner for two at that
location.

My rating of this year's CICF: ***1/2 (there's always room for
improvement).

I hope I'm not sounding too much like Cliff Mishler!

Heezer