Charmy's 2019 CHICAGO ANA WORLD'S FAIR OF MONEY SHOW REPORT w/Tons of Pics! 1 1

[The Penny Lady]

I always look forward to the ANA's World's Fair of Money show as there are a lot of events and activities in addiiton to the buying and selling of coins. I had several business and club meetings, a presentation, and some cocktail receptions to attend, so I was doing preparation for this show a few weeks before I left. As is typical for the WFM show, I knew it was going to be a very busy week!

I was very pleased to see that the popular CBS Sunday Morning show even had the WFM show on their upcoming week's calendar!

I left OC on Sunday afternoon, with lots of enthusiasm for the week ahead and, about four hours later we were landing in Chicago.

I stayed at the Hyatt which has a beautiful lobby and interior, however, the rooms are a bit dated and the bathrooms are very small. It does have a walkway from the hotel to the convention center, but boy oh boy is it long and sort of like a mouse maze! However, it is covered and air conditioned!

The Hyatt happened to be having a Beatles festival that weekend and Sunday night was their last event. Since Rick Snow is a big Beatles fan, he and Kenny met me at the hotel for the tribute concert being held that evening by a band called Liverpool. They were very good and played songs from the Abbey Road album.

Monday morning I headed over to the convention center for the PNG preshow where I found quite a few Pretty Pennies for my inventory. This is a pic of most of the coins I bought throughout the show, though several pieces sold before I took the pic.

I even found a couple of very unusual and cool pieces, particularly this 1942 plastic pattern cent!

And this neat Large Cent blank planchet

I also found some very cool errors for my personal collection!

(Scratch is on the holder, not the coin)

And I brought these new pocket mirrors that I recently bought for Todd to photograph

The convention center is pretty lit up at night

Monday night was the PNG banquet held at Gibson's. It's always a very nice enjoyable event, especially since it starts out with a hosted cocktail reception. It provides a great opportunity for me to catch up with many of my dealer friends.

Me and Liz Coggan

Neil Ulrich and Rick Snow

Me and Jennifer Ackerman/ANA

New ANA President Steve Ellsworth

New ANA Governor Lynn Garrett and her husband past ANA President Jeff Garrett

Foreign coin dealers Dan and Conner of Daniel Frank Sedwick auctions

Me and Neil

Others at the reception

During the banquet, the PNG honored Paul Nugget with the PNG 2019 Abe Kosoff Founders Award "for his steadfast dedication to the entire numismatic community and significant contributions to the Guild and the numismatic fraternity in general."

Q. David Bowers, a former PNG President, received the PNG 2019 Significant Contribution Award

The PNG’s ACTF Alan Kreuzer Memorial Award "for combatting numismatic-related fraud and thievery" was presented to Jack Young by Beth Deisher of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation and PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman.

Our table included past ANA President Gary Adkins and his wife, as well as past ANA President Jeff Garrett and new ANA President Steve Ellsworth

Tuesday morning at 8am was set up for the dealers. I arrived a little after 8 so most of the dealers had already entered the bourse floor and the lobby was sparse. But as I was coming down the escalator you could see the ANA was busy setting up the lobby for the opening ceremony later that day.

The bourse floor was huge and sort of L shaped. This was taken from near the furthest back corner of the room during set up.

After I set up my booth, I went over to the ANA Money Museum to check out their displays, in particular, I wanted to see what the Louis Werner's Capped Cents display looked like since I lent them some of my pieces for the display. As I mentioned before, I also was giving a talk on the Capped Cents later that week at our Fly-In Club meeting.

The ANA Money Museum always has some fantastic displays, and this time didn't disappoint! The 1942 pattern cent is amazing, and I always love seeing the 1943 copper cent display!

Once the public was let in, I can tell you that I got slammed - and it was great! I had one of the busiest days at a show that I've ever had, and it lasted most of the afternoon.

Here are some of the folks who stopped by to say hi

Dennis Forgue brought me several pieces of penny exonumia for my collection!

Michael Maretta

Rod Gillis, ANA Education Director

Finally about 4pm things started to slow down, so I finally opened up the bottle of Rumbauer that I had brought.

My neighbor, Greg Krill, who has his own winery, Pellet Estate, surprisingly needed to borrow my wine opener and graciously gave me a cup of his delicious wine as well.

As I mentioned, Tuesday was super busy and I was thrilled with the amount of collectors who were actively seeking pieces for their collections. After the show was over, we stopped at the Five Roses Pub for dinner and drinks before we headed over to the Rivers Casino.

That's my nice little stack of chips to the right! Between this Texas Hold-Um Bonus game and the 2 cent Buffalo Stampede slots, I ended up $600 ahead for the night!

Wednesday morning was the only morning I could sleep in a little as I had 7:30 am meetings the rest of the week. So I took my time, ordered breakfast in my room, then headed over to the show around 9 am. I took that long walkway which, with all its turns back and forth, I estimate to be almost a mile to the convention center - or at least it felt that way! I later learned that if I just went outside and walked to the convention center down the street and around the corner, it was at least half the distance!

Inside the door of the bourse was this handy sign directing collectors to the specific areas on the bourse

And here I am all ready for another busy day at the show!

My table happened to be right across from David Hall's table. So we took a photo together, along with this rare, fantastic, and gorgeous 1886 $20 gold proof coin he just happened to have!

My dear friend Ron Guth stopped by!

More folks stopped by too - this is Mark/DollarAfterDollar

And this is Josh

These are a couple beautiful encasements that I was asked to examine because the owner thought the 1911 might be a Matte Proof Lincoln. The 1911 was not only beautifully toned, it was very sharp and looked like it could be a Matte Proof. However, after careful examination and showing it to a couple other copper experts, it didn't have the proper diagnostics and we determined it was just a very well struck business strike. I was still very interested in purchasing both pieces since they were in pristine condition and would fit nicely in my encasement collection. However, the seller wanted quite a bit of money for the pair and even though I would have loved to haved them, the price was just too high for what I thought they were worth, even taking into consideration the premium for their condition and eye appeal. I later found out that the delaer did get his asking price but I suspect the new owner bought them thinking the 1911 was a Matte Proof or I doubt he would have paid that much. You win some, you lose some!

I was very pleased that Wednesday was again very busy with lots of traffic and sales. After the show ended on Wednesday, a large group of us (mostly Copper Weenies including Greg Hannigan, Chris McCawley, Rick Snow and Dino Koromvokis!) went to Carlucci's for dinner. They weren't too far away, and the food was fantastic!

Me and Ron waiting for the rest of the party

This was a wonderful bottle of wine that Ron chose!

I had the Biztecca di Manzo con Gamberi which included a filet, baked crabmeat stuffed scampi and pasta - it was fantastic!

Charmy Harker - The Penny Lady® 

Edited August 23, 2019 by The Penny Lady

[The Penny Lady]

Thursday morning I had a 7:30am meeting with Kevin Foley, Mitch Ernest and several other dealers regarding ways to improve the Central States show. We discussed both positive and negative aspects of the show, and had a few ideas on how to improve the negative aspects. I think it was a productive meeting, and I appreciated being asked to be a part of it. It is a positive step when the people running the shows ask for and listen to outside opinions.

Mitch Ernest in particular has been working very hard to improve the inner workings of the CSNS, and I personally applaud him for all his efforts and insights. He is a truly wonderful person, with a big huge kind and gracious heart. Here is Mitch manning the Central States table!

After the meeting, I got to the show right when the public was being let in.

The NGC and PMG tables were already busy

And here's my bff Cindi working the ANACS table!

I am so sorry I neglected to get pics of the PCGS table but it was all the way on the other side of the room, and I just plain forgot!

More folks stopped by just to say hi - this is the Dave and Bob/Watersport

Sam Joseph/ANA Exposition Manager - he is so friendly and always willing to help with anything!

Thursday was again hectic throughout most of the day. It's days like this that make the show fly by - I love it! Also, Thursday night was platinum night at the auction, and a group of us who were not bidding on the auction went over to Gibson's for drinks. I knew Rick was bidding on a couple items at the auction and would report back once it was over. Greg Hannigan, his wife Cecelia, stopped by for a drink before heading over to the casino for dinner and invited me to go along. Well of course, how could I refuse! espeially since the casino was just down the road.

We had dinner at Hugo's Frog Bar and Chop House at the casino which I believe may be related to Gibson's since they basically had the same menu, only less expensive. Their food was amazing! Cecelia even offered to take my leftovers back to the hotel and bring them to the show (heated) the next day for lunch - Cecelia is not only a beautiful lady, she is a super kind and gracious sweetheart! I gambled for only a couple hours and again left with extra money in my pockets!

Friday morning I had another 7:30am meeting, this time it was the CDN dealer meeting on coin pricing. It was very informative. I believe John is truly being transparent and is working hard to be interactive with the dealer community and auction houses in creating accurate and up to date pricing for all coins. He has brought the Grey Sheet into this century and CDN website has some amazing and helpful features.

photos courtesy of Greg Hannigan

An elderly couple stopped by my table and showed me a 1943 bronze cent and asked if it was authentic. Of course my first impression after seeing countless fakes was that here's another one. However, he told me he found it in the wall of a house he recently bought from an old coin dealer who had died. He said they found several coins but this particular coin was specially wrapped in newspaper so he figured it must be something special. This peaked my interest. He also said it didn't stick to a magnet, and when I showed it to John Dannreuther who weighed it and it had the correct weight, my interest was peaked even further.

But there were a couple things that gave me pause, including the way the rim looked with an extra "outline" and the fact that the date and motto were boldly doubled (which could be attributed to machine doubling) but I've never seen a regular 1943 doubled like this. Even though John suspected it might be counterfeit, he felt it would be worth sending it in for verification just in case. Then I thought about Fred Weinberg who was an aisle away from me. I brought it over to him and he verified that it definitely was a struck counterfeit. The elderly couple was disappointed but glad they didn't have to spend $100+ to submit it only to find out it was not authentic. I wished I had taken a photo, but I got caught up in getting it authenticated one way or the other and didn't think about photographing it at the time!

One of my favorite couples stopped by for a brief chat - Larry Sekulich and his wonderful wife Linda. Larry was my exhibiting instructor at the ANA Summer Seminar several years back, and we've been friends ever since, in spite of the fact that it was his exhibit that beat my Penny Potpourri exhibit for Best of Show at the WFM show a few years ago!

Soon it was time for my Capped Cents presentation to the Fly-In Club.

Before my presentation began, Rick talked about penny counterfeits and had a nice display of several examples. He also brought the discovery piece of the 1875 "dot on the N" cent which was created by the mint to catch a coin thief!

I had been preparing my presentation for several weeks now, tweaking it here and there. I hadn't used Power Point for over 15 years and I had fun playing around with all the graphics and designs. In the end, I kept it simple since I already had many photographs in my presentation. I think the presentation went well, though I was a little slow with changing slides on time!

Here are some photos that Greg Hannigan took and allowed me to use them for this report!

Rick was gracious enough to video tape my presentation, but it cut off in the middle (he was using his phone and got a call!), so it's in two parts. However, I do not know how to post a video here, so perhaps someone can help me with that!

I really enjoyed doing the research and writing the article/presentation on this topic, but then I'm crazy about anything made with pennies! So once I get the videos posted, I will certainly understand if any of you find this topic/presentation kind of boring and don't make it through the whole thing! ;-)

Friday was once again very active and again the day went by very quickly. I haven't had such a busy show as this one in a long time, with so many people in attendance. Everyone I spoke to felt the same way and I didn't hear any grumbling or dealers say they had a bad show!

Friday night was the big ANA banquet, with a cocktail reception ahead of time. It's a great opportunity to socialize with a lot of our illuminaries and honor those in our industry who go the extra mile by giving of their time and expertise to help improve numismatics for everyone. If it wasn't for many of these folks, our world of numismatics would be a little less enlightened, a little less interesting, and a little less fun!

We went over to the Hilton a little early, and ran into Abe Lincoln!

Here are our very fun and diverse table mates at the banquet

One of my very favorite people on the planet - Susan Trask, a truly gracious and wonderful lady!

Susan and Kenny Snow

As usual, the ANA held a silent auction with some great items up for bid. I tried to win a few things but was outbid on each of them (which was a good thing since I didn't have any extra room in my suitcase to take them home!). Here are some of the items up for auction.

Some pics around the room

Then the ANA special award winners were announced, followed by installation of the new ANA officers. They decided to hold a separate ceremony for the exhibits on Saturday, so the banquet was a bit shorter than usual. I thought it would be simpler and more accurate if I just took pictures of the program which lists all the award winners along with short bios of each recipient.

(not my photo)

On Saturday, once again, I had another 7:30am meeting - yuck! I am not a big morning person and these early meetings were wearing on me. But this one was my most important one - it was our Women In Numismatics meeting and as president, I plan a few weeks ahead of time what our agenda will be and do a lot of follow up with various folks. We had a long agenda for this meeting since next year we are celebrating "The Year of Women in Numismatics" which coincides with the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote. Throughout the year we will be holding special presentations, raffles, door prizes, give-aways, etc. to help promote numismatics to women. We are also doing a big push to involve more young women in WIN by giving all young women who attend the ANA Summer Seminar free memberships for a year. We already have several guest speakers lined up such as John Kraljevich, Ron Guth, and Roger Burdette to give presentations at the three shows WIN holds meetings - FUN, CSNS, and WFM. I am very excited to be a part of this special year for Women In Numismatics!

Our board hard at work!

Dreama Hurst tallying up our raffle receipts

We had a very fruitful board meeting, followed by our general meeting with Mel Wacks who was our guest speaker. Mel is Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, and spoke about women on their commemorative medals.

I then headed back to my table and, even though I fielded a lot of questions about the value of handfuls of old generic wheat pennies people had inherited, I had quite a few sales and suprisingly found Saturday to be surprisingly busy. I even ran into good old Abe again!

And these adorable young ones with their parents stopped by to take a look at my Pretty Pennies!

When I had a break, I went over to the other side of the room to see which exhibits had won. I took photos of most of the winners and of the ones I enjoyed viewing.

Soon it was time to pack up and head home. Even though it was a very busy week, it went by so fast and was very successful and fun! When I finally boarded the plane and sat in my seat, I felt exhausted by very satisfied!

Bye-bye crazy Chicago for now....

Hello beautiful Orange County!

My hubby is taking care of some things at our place in Lake Havasu so he wasn't home to greet me, but of course my sweet Pretty Penny sure was!

Next up: Long Beach in a couple weeks, then Buena Park and PNNA Portland in October!

[DWLange]

Looks like a good time was had by all...

[The Penny Lady]

We/I sure missed seeing you David! 

[numisport]

As usual nice presentation Charmy. Cool WWll pattern cent too. Is that one yours ?

[EmiCoins]

I wish I could of been there. Sounds like a ton of fun! I’m 12, so maybe my parents will bring me next year and I can see some awesome Indian Cents (My favorite US coins)!

[DWLange]

We/I sure missed seeing you David! 

I missed being there. This was only my fourth ANA convention absence in nearly 40 years.

[bigmarty 58]

Looks like you were busy, thank you for the best show report in numismatics!

[disme]

A pleasure to go through. Thanks for posting.

[Conder101]

On 8/22/2019 at 7:59 AM, EmiCoins said:

wish I could of been there. Sounds like a ton of fun! I’m 12, so maybe my parents will bring me next year and I can see some awesome Indian Cents

Next year it is in Pittsburgh I believe, but the year after that it is back in Chicago again.