Charmy's November 2017 BALTIMORE SHOW REPORT w/lots of Pics!

[The Penny Lady]

I love going the Baltimore show - and this one was no exception! Whitman does a great job putting on this show, and Baltimore is a fun city to visit.

I had checked out the weather forecast and discovered it was going to be quite cold so this wimpy SoCal gal made sure to take my heavy wool coat (now known as my "Baltimore coat"), scarf, gloves, and hat! And boy, was I glad that I did!

I left bright and sunny OC Tuesday morning around 10am, and was delighted to find that the John Wayne Airport was pretty deserted at that time and I sailed through security with only a brief swipe and wipe on my bags!

I arrived in Baltimore Tuesday evening, and settled into my hotel. Wednesday I dropped my bags off at security and got my dealer tag. Then I did some shopping at a couple dealer hotel "preshows" and found quite a few nice pieces to add to my inventory. Then I headed to the Horseshoe Casino for a little gambling entertainment.

Set up was at 8am on Thursday morning and the lobby was crowded with dealers waiting to get in!

This is what the bourse floor looks like before all the dealers set up their booths.

I did more buying during dealer set up, as well as throughout the show. My certified inventory was a little depleted on some dates, so I did a lot of buying at this show. Here are most of my newps:

Out of all the coins I bought at this show, this toned 1877 PCGS PF65 RB is one of the prettiest pennies and my favorite coin I bought at the show!

 

In the afternoon, I broke out one of the wines I had brought with me.

After the show, several dealers headed over to a reception at the Pratt Street Ale House sponsored by a Facebook group called "Coin Dealers Helping Coin Dealers" put on my Rob Oberth and John Schuch, Jr. They are introducing a great new program where dealers can list and promote coins. Hopefully, when it's ready to launch they will put the word out on the message boards!

After the reception, we headed over to our favorite Italian restaurant in Little Italy, Da Mimmo's. When we got there, several other dealers were already there dining. I had a delicious Lemon Drop Martini instead of wine this time.

After dinner, we walked around the corner to the famous Vaccarro's for dessert!

I also bought a box of cookies to take back to my hubby!

When I got to the show on Friday morning, I went over to PCGS to turn in a group of raw coins for grading before they got too busy.

Mark Stephenson

I brought several Conder tokens to have graded by NGC, including two new very rare pieces I had just picked up at the show (Warwickshire 122, one is the early die state and the other is the late die state of the same piece).

Before I submitted the Conder tokens for grading, I had Todd photograph them

I also had him photograph some new penny exonumia I had recently bought, including this common repoussé/pop out penny with a very unusual clip on the back.

I just bought this very cool very detailed carved eagle Indian cent love token

These are Todd's photos of some of the other exonumia I acquired recently.

Cliff/TooTawl stopped by my table and bought a 1909-S VDB that he'd been wanting to add to his collection.

My friend Alan Weinberg came by and showed me this beautiful and extremely valuable 1792 silver plugged half cent from his own personal collection (valued in the 7 figures). He had brought it with him to compare to the one that was in the auction. Needless to say, his piece was quite superior to the one in the auction.

Also, a young dealer friend who also deals in rare books showed me this very rare (valued in the 6 figures) First Edition of the Book of Mormon he had brought to sell to another collector at the show. This one was in great shape and I was honored to be able to see and touch this amazing piece of history.

This is me trying on a friend's pair of pretty blingy sunglasses - what do ya'll think!

After the show died down in the afternoon, out came the wine - and of course my wine drinking dealer friends! This is Don from Goldberg Auctions.

After the show on Friday, my dark side coin dealer group and I went to our anxiously awaited dinner in the wine cellar of the Black Olive restaurant. We love this place and have a great time together. These dark side folks are a hoot, and the wine and food are always wonderful.

We always start off at the intimate bar with a refreshing tasty white wine.

Then we headed down into the cellar to the one large table they had waiting for us where we are surrounded by hundreds of bottles of wine!

These are some of the red wines we had

The menu

Their famous and very delicious octopus appetizer

Some of the main course dishes we had

And dessert!

The latest flight home I could get on Saturday was at 3pm, so I headed over to the show early on Saturday to get some work done before the public came in and before I would have to start packing up. The lobby was already full of the dealers waiting to get into the bourse.

All too soon it was time to pack and head to the airport. Bye-bye Baltimore - be back in March!

I love being at the show, but by the end, I really look forward to going home to my hubby, my adorable grandbaby and Penny!

Next up: The Las Vegas Club show in December, then of course the FUN show in Tampa!

[LINCOLNMAN]

Charmy, thanks for taking the trouble to document and post, always enjoy your show reports.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Charmy, had to go ATS to read your report because these pics just take forever to load here.

In fact, I think many of the pics ATS cannot be found here because of loading difficulties you may have experienced.

But I do like your Baltimore report.  And I'm so envious when I watch your "wine club" head down into the wine cellar of The Black Olive.

As always, thank you.

Bob

 

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Actually, it does look like all of your pics came through.  But they are BIG pics.

[Star City Homer]

Fun to read!  The meal/wine in the basement always looks so good.  But, Penny-the-kitty is the best (though the grandchild is awfully adorable too!).