Coins We Love: May the Fourth Be With You!
Central States is a wrap and we’ve moved on into May!
Honestly, the CSNS show was “fine”. That’s probably the best word to use for the annual Schaumburg event. It has aspirations of being the 3rd most important coin show of the year as it was a decade ago, but I would say that two Baltimore Show events have eclipsed this, pushing it into an unstable 5th position. CSNS has the unenviable position of occurring around tax time in April, and with it parking the show in Schaumburg (which is the best hotel/convention center combination we frequent on an annual basis), there is limited public attendance and growth available.
The Chicago suburb is perfectly fine and is ideal for wholesale trading, but Chicago has been really played out with CSNS and ANA WFOM occurring within 10 miles of each other on a mostly annual basis. When folks say that coin shows are dying and attendance is suffering, it’s easy to point at shows like this to say it’s true. But, when you look at the greater picture, it’s really a “fake news” scenario.
I’d love to see CSNS hit the road again one day and visit the locales of the Midwest. I think the show would see rejuvenated attendance and excitement, but it’s an incredibly difficult thing to balance financial feasibility and geographic desirability when it comes to shows.
I will hand it to the CSNS folks as their educational additions of the NNP Symposium live events to their show have made it an excellent opportunity for numismatic education. The forums that they offer with the speaker quality has surpassed much of what is offered in the numismatic community. Lianna Spurrier has done a great job coordinating those events and I’ll take this opportunity to say “Well done!”.
What else is going on here? We have a huge RCR Auction ending tonight, with some really exciting pieces, including the Buffalo Center Three Dollar Gold Collection (All No Reserve), a fantastic STELLA, and a few other exciting highlights. We hope that you enjoy this Thursday night offering and the other coins that came to mind for us in this week’s CWL. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. Thanks for taking the time to sit with us and this week’s Coins We Love!
Numismatically yours,
John Brush
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