Coins We Love: Atlanta ANA National Money Show Edition

We made it to this year’s location of the ANA National Money Show and I admittedly have some familiarity with this location. Hosted at the Cobb Galleria Center in Northwest Atlanta, this location has been the host of many regional and national shows in the last 25 years and it’s a welcome location in my humble opinion. The trip down here was quite quick and easy and while we arrived a day earlier than normal, it was for a good reason.

We chose the earlier flight on Monday rather than the later options to get a little bit of the Atlanta flavor and to get first shot with two of our favorite customers. So, after our visit to the rebuilt original Chick-fil-A we made a brief trip north of the city to visit the Dahlonega, Georgia Gold Museum. While I had been there before, John Call and Wes had not, so the brief stop-over and numismatic history lesson were an excellent addition to this year’s ANA pilgrimage. One of the photos below was our attempt at numismatic humor as we attempted to “repatriate” two Dahlonega gold coins to the mint. The Park Ranger in charge found us a little humorous and didn’t kick us out, but I did wonder if this was the first time these coins had been back to the area since they left in the mid-1800s. I guess we’ll never know, but I’m sure the coins have some stories to tell!

We eventually got to the hotel and ended up working later into the evening where we were able to negotiate a pretty large deal which will likely be one of our best purchases from the show. The quality of coins from this wholesale dealer is always top notch and the conversation with him and his coworker was also enjoyable…until it evolved into college basketball.

Tuesday was segmented into several parts for us as John (JC) and Wes took the ANA class on Counterfeit Detection and Altered Coins. While this may be a “why did they need that” opportunity, I can wholeheartedly say that it’s a class that one can take 100 times and learn something new. With the number of uncertified deals that we handle, it’s an important class to understand and one which I would wholeheartedly suggest to anyone. These ANA Seminars are one of the best things that the ANA offers, so if it comes to a location near you, jump on the opportunity. It’s worth taking a day of PTO if you’re serious about coins.

I took the day to visit a client’s office where I brought home another fantastic group of coins. This dealer is one of my favorites to hang out with, and not just because I was able to buy 85% of his entire inventory for the second visit in a row. The rest of the day was spent getting back to the hotel in terrible traffic (I forgot why I left Atlanta until this event) and then bopping around to different rooms to visit even more dealers. At the end of the day, we had reached our goal for the show, so everything on top of this is just gravy…and we still had three days to go!

Wednesday involved a little bit more dealer visiting while JC and Wes studied counterfeits, and then set-up came up at 1pm and we eventually all hit the bourse floor. It’s a decent size event and while it was a little quiet, it was just about perfect for us. We threw our table together, displayed some coins, and kept working! By the end of the day we did hit a wall and didn’t even make it out to dinner. But I did end up regretting that as I woke up at 4:30 to start my day today.

I think a little extra coffee may be in the future for me today, but for now, I’ll sign off and we’ll go get ready for the first official day at the show!

If you’ll be in Atlanta, please stop by. We’d love to see you! We’re two tables inside the front door and will be waiting to chat!

Numismatically yours,
John Brush

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