By David C. Harper, World Coin News January 13, 2010

The year 2010 seems to have opened with a bit of a numismatic bang as during the first nonholiday weekend Jan. 7-10 two major shows were held.

In the U.S. field, the Florida United Numismatists convention was held in Orlando. The other convention was the New York International Numismatic Convention.

It is unfortunate that both are held simultaneously. It is difficult for coin shows to nail down facilities because we just are not large enough as a group to be considered prime conventions for the cities involved.

I know that it is not the intention of the NYINC to create problems, but this conflict in timing has its roots in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that destroyed its original home and early December timing.

What is most interesting about these conflicting dates is not so much the history that has brought them about as the fact that the conflict seems to have settled into the annual schedule and become a fact of life to be dealt with.

My colleague from the Standard Catalog of World Coins, George Cuhaj, and I both had instances of talking to individuals who spent some time at each show.

A conversation I had with a FUN attendee on Sunday morning revealed that he had been at FUN for its first day of Thursday. Then he had gotten on a plane and headed for New York City. He spent time there and then returned to Florida to be at the opening of the FUN show on Sunday morning. George recounted seeing people in New York who had come from the FUN show.

Between the two of us, though, we probably hardly scratched the service in discovering the number of hobbyists who either individually or as firms felt it important to be at both shows.

Apparently, the old aphorism, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way,” applies here.

But at a deeper level, this proves the coin market has some strength, perhaps a real strength that signals a great start for the next leg of the numismatic boom. Individuals expecting bad business at either the U.S. or the international event would not go to the trouble and expense to get to both.

Year in and year out, both shows have proved in their own way to be important. The FUN show had 570 dealer tables. That is huge. It may be the largest show by table count to be held this year.

FUN is also important enough that attendees will follow it to Tampa next year because its Orange County Convention Center location will be taken over entirely by a home builders show in 2011.

The New York show is the most important world coin event that is held in the United States. The international aspect is more than just reflected in inventories. Overseas hobbyists arrive in droves and in staff conversations, George would begin sentences with, “You know who was there?” Such is the drawing power of the show that would not stay down for the count on 9/11.

The coin market is proving to be anything but down in the aftermath of the world’s financial crisis as well.

I plan to play catch-up with international collectors when I attend the World Money Fair in Berlin. When I look at the cost of breakfast there, the sting of the strong euro reminds me that it is the very same euro keeping world coin prices strong.



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• Strike It Rich with Pocket Change, 2nd Edition