Charmy’s 2018 PHILLY ANA WORLD’S FAIR OF MONEY SHOW REPORT w/Tons of Pics!

So sorry this report is a later than usual – in addition to watching my grandson which takes a lot of my time, I had some significant travel mishaps that delayed me getting home and just wiped me out mentally and physically. More on that later.

Overall, the show was good, not the best show I’ve had for selling, but it was great for buying. Also, it is a fun city to visit and tour, with lots of wonderful and interesting historical sites to see. So grab a cup of coffee or other beverage depending on the time of day you read this, as there will be lots and lots of photos!

So I headed for Philly the Saturday before the show so I could see some of the sites before the show started. This is me so very happy to be going to the Philly ANA!

As many of you know we are having lots of wild fires out here in California, and as we flew out of Orange County you could see all the smoke from the hills in OC/Riverside that were still burning last week.

I arrived in Chicago to make my connection to Philly, only to find out my connection was slightly delayed due to the storms over Philly.

So I grabbed a drink while awaiting my flight. I kept getting updates showing my flight was delayed even further, first 15 minutes, then 1/2 hour, then another hour, then two hours. Finally, later than evening it was cancelled altogether. I immediately went to customer service and found they had put me on a flight going the other direction! There was another flight to Philly that was supposed to leave in an hour but I would have had to go stand-by which meant even if I got on, there wouldn’t be any room left for my bags. So they put me on a 5:20am flight the next morning. I decided against getting a hotel room since I would have to be back at the airport around 3:30am, and just kept my room in Philly so I could go straight there and sleep for a while. But this meant that I would be hanging out at Chicago O’Hare for several hours. This is me not very happy about having my flight cancelled and spending the night in an airport.

And this corner was my home for the night. I watched “The 60’s” and “The 70’s” on CNN, as well as several episodes of a tv show I had downloaded on my tablet.

And this is what O’Hare looks like at 3am – who would have thought that it would be completely deserted!

Finally, hello Philly!!

So I got to my hotel around 9am on Sunday, actually met someone to do a little business, then passed out in my room for several hours. Then it was time to hit the city and see some sites! Rick, his son Kenny and I headed over to Independence Hall and passed the site where the First United States Mint building was.

Then on to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell

The beautiful horsecart tours looked like a great way to see the city

Then it was time for dinner – we ended up at the Hardrock Cafe

This was the guitar and plaque right above our table

It was so very hot and humid that this fruity tasty beverage was so refreshing – and I got to keep the souvenir glass!

After that, we called it a night so I could catch up on my sleep!

The next morning (Monday) was the PNG preshow so I headed over to the convention center. It was raining quite heavily so it was nice to have the walkway from the Marriott to the convention center, although it was probably three times as long as walking out the front door of the hotel.

Although I bought several more coins throughout the show, I did the majority of my buying at the preshow. Here are photos of all the coins I bought throughout the week.

Some of the highlights of my purchasers are these:

I was thrilled to find a pretty 1895 red Indian cent in a rare Doily holder to add to my personal collection!

I also bought my first Gold CAC stickered coin!

And I found a rare Mint State (S-3) 1856 Flying Eagle in PCGS AU58! Although I know it’s an uphill battler, I’m going to try and convince PCGS to put it in the correct holder.

After the preshow, Rick, Kenny and I did some more siteseeing. We headed over to the Philadelphia Mint and took the self-guided tour. However, non of the machinery was working, but it was still very interesting. Here are some highlights:

This was a roll of metal that coin planchets are punched out of

After the Mint, we visited Ben Franklin’s grave

Next, I decided to peruse the famous Reading Terminal Market. What a fantastic place! It has every kind of wonderful food you can imagine!

Later, I headed over to Morton’s to attend the PNG awards banquet

ICTA Executive Director Kathy McFadden received the PNG 2018 Significant Achievement Award

PNG 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Donn Pearlman

Tuesday morning was dealer set up and there was quite a crowd of dealers waiting to get into the bourse

The ANA did a lot of advertising for this show, including an ad on tv that I saw each morning before I left for the show. Here’s a great article in the local newspaper about the show.

After I set up my booth, a few more vest pocket dealers stopped by and I continued to add more Pretty Pennies to my inventory. I also perused the bourse for coins on my customer want lists. Then it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I had brought. This one is my favorite zinfandel!

After the bourse closed for the day, it was time to board the buses for the ANA’s kick-off event at the Museum of the American Revoluation.

This is a relatively new museum, and it was absolutely wonderful!

This is my “possee”! Kenny, Central States Numismatic Society President Mitch Ernst, Rick and Neil

Me and ANA President Gary Adkins

Me and NGC Research Director David Lange

Looking down at the entrance

Me. Susan Trask and Rob Oberth

and look who else showed up at the event!

Here are highlights of the museum exhibits

The ANA handed out some nice goodie bags for all the participants

Other folks recognized the Pawn Stars celebrity as well!

I actually took a lot more pictures because there were so many interesting exhibits. However, I missed seeing Washington’s field tent which closed before I could see it, and I am told that was the best part of the whole museum!

After the museum, a group of us went to Maggianos for dinner – they had very yummy wine!

Wednesday morning I had an early meeting of the ANA Dealer Relations Committee where we discussed various ways to make the hobby better for everyone, both dealers and collectors.

When I got to the show I had a few extra minutes to peruse the ANA museum display. WOW, some amazing pieces!

I also stopped by John Kraljevich’s table to see if he had any “goodies” for me – whenever he finds some penny-related item he thinks I might like, he sets it aside for me in a small envelope. Well he had some great goodies just waiting for me! His mom used to collect the tiny teapots made from pennies and had decided it was time to part with them so he had those waiting for me. He also had a teapot from Norway, and Indian cent spinner, and a WWII Victory pin. But the best thing was this 1889 Indian cent locket containing a tiny photo of an old man. The inside was machined out and it had a couple of threads to twist the two parts on and off. When the two sides were screwed together, you’d never know it was two pieces.

When I got back to my table, a couple of good friends were waiting for me – Larry and Linda Sekulich! Larry was the Summer Seminar instructor I took the exhibiting class from. They had stopped by to say hi and give me this very nice large copper replica of a 1909-S vdb Lincoln cent!

A short time later a couple of forum members stopped by to chat.

Frank/Treashunt

Pat/PTVetter

Ed Fuhrman also stopped by and showed me this very cool rare Indian cent on a dime planchet error. Even though it had been scratched on the reverse, it was still quite a pricey error.

After the show on Wednesday, I went to the auction to see the Indian cents and of course the 1913 Nickel! There were some great Indian cents in this auction, but the nickel was why the room was packed!

It was a little bit of a let down because after all the introductory comments, the history, and the rules about bidding on the nickel, no one placed a bid on the nickel at the auction. The prior online bidding of $3.8 million was the final hammer price.

After the auction, we had reservations at the City Tavern, established in 1773. It was torn down in 1854, then the National Park Service rebuilt an exact replica in 1975. It was rebuilt “so that you may enjoy a ‘taste’ of the past and share the atmosphere of gentility and food cheer enjoyed by our nation’s founders.” The food was taken from recipes of the 1790’s and included rabbit, venison, turkey, etc.

This was a popular cider drink that was delicious!

This was a description of the beer samplers they served

These were just the appetizers!

Sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of the meals – the food was delicious!

And so was the wine!

Thursday morning a few more forum members stopped by

Mark/Sparky64

It had been a long time since I saw Broadstruck at a show so it was good to see him. Sorry, all you get to see is his hand!

Dennis/DCW and Brian/Boosibri

Cliff/Tootall (and Rick who was standing on his tip toes!)

Larry Sekulich collects, among other things, ancient coins and he came by and showed me a couple of the cool pieces he bought at the show

This is Mary Garrett (Jeff Garrett’s wife), along with Rick from Pawn Stars, and of course Elvis was in the building too!

At the end of the day I opened up the second bottle of wine I had brought. I was one that I bought in a case of mixed wines from a friend, so I wasn’t sure how I would like it, but it did not disappoint!

Thursday night I decided to give the Harrah’s Casino a try. While I did okay at the table games, I couldn’t get a head on the slots.

Friday was a very busy day, not only business-wise, but I was giving a presentation at the Fly-In Club on “Penny Pots and Pins Made by Offenders and Defenders” which is about prison art and trench art made out of pennies. It seemed well received.

My good friend Michael Hassler again won the PCGS Platinum Level award for his Lincoln Everyman’s Set – Congratulations Michael!

The bourse floor was still pretty active in the afternoon on Friday

Ran into ANA Governor Steve Ellsworth and former ANA President Jeff Garrett

Throughout the week, this wonderful young page was running around the bourse, taking and delivering lunch orders, delivering flyers, etc. The pages were not allowed to leave the convention center on their own to pick up food orders, so this young lady had her mom go with her so she could fill orders from the very popular Reading Terminal Market across the street!

A favorite lunch pick by everyone, including me, was the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich from the market!

Friday night was the annual ANA Awards Banquet where they also hold a silent auction.

These are some of the items that were up for auction – the baseball bat was one of the highlights (Rick was the high bidder)

Here are some faces from the banquet

I am so pleased that several Women In Numismatics members won significant awards at the banquet!

Cindy Wibker as the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Farran Zerbe award

Prue Fitts received the Elvira Clain-Steffanelli award

Mark Lighterman for the ANA lifetime achievement award

Abby Zechman won Best of Show in the YN Division for her exhibit, and also Young Numismatist of the Year

and Bob Fritsch received the Joseph Boling award for excellence in numismatic judging

On Saturday morning I had my WIN board and general meeting. At our board meeting we discussed holding some special events in the year 2020 – the 100th anniversary of the year women got the right to vote. We plan to call it “The Year of Women In Numismatics” and plan to have give-aways, educational programs, presentations, panel discussions, and more! We really would like to show what a fun, fascinating, and fulfilling experience numismatics can be for everyone!

Louise Boling won the WIN Gloria Peters Literary Award for the best article published in Winning Ways during the previous calendar year for her article, “A Novel Way to Display a Collection: Jack L. Boling – A Life in Stitches.”

We also drew our 25/25/50 Summer Seminar Scholarship raffle winners!

After the board meeting, I again gave my Penny Pots and Pins presentation.

When I got back to the bourse floor, I took a few minutes to view all the exhibits. There were definitely some very creative and interesting exhibits

I also stopped by the NGC and PCGS tables for a brief photo op. Both tables were still very busy even on Saturday morning!

These three are my handsome dark side friends from Daniel Frank Sedwick – Dan, Conner and Augie

I didn’t get to spend much time with my bff Cindi, but anytime we are together is a hoot!

I also ran into another good friend, James Sego of QC Coins. He had just closed a deal on this very rare 1833 $10 gold coin for in the neighborhood of $1 million!

Soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport for my flight back home. Now I thought spending the night in the airport on the way to Philly was a pretty bad flight experience, but my trip back home turned out to be even worse.

My flight from Philly to Dallas took off just fine, but when we got to Dallas we began circling the airport due to Thunder and lightning storms over Dallas. They then diverted us to Tulsa where we landed and waited 2 hours to refuel, then we headed back to DFW. Since I realized I was going to miss my connecting flight to OC, while waiting on the plane in Tulsa, I went ahead and got a hotel in Dallas and rebooked my fight to OC for the morning.

By the way, there was a group on the plane who were actually headed to Tulsa through Dallas. When they found out we were being diverted to Tulsa to refuel, they asked the flight attendant if they could simply deplane in Tulsa but were told they couldn’t since we wouldn’t be going to a gate. That would mean they’d have to sit there with the rest of us, go back to Dallas, spend the night, then catch another flight to Tulsa the next day – what a waste! Well, the airline came to their senses and a flight attendant led those passengers off the plane, onto the tarmac, and into the terminal so they could go home. They would have to get their bags later, but who cares about your bag at that point!

Almost 7 hours after we left Philly we finally landed in Dallas only to find found out there were over 100 other planes waiting for gates due to the the weather problems. So we spent another 2 1/2 hours just sitting on the plane on the runway waiting for a gate. Finally the pilot told us we had a gate! Yippee! So we’re all cheering as we taxied over to the gate – only to stop a few feet short. Ugh! Now they had no guy with the orange stick to guide the plane to the gate! So we waited another 1/2 hour just short of the gate – so close but so far!

We finally got a stick guy to lead us to the gate where we pulled up next to the terminal. But wait! Now there was no one to operate the jetway to connect the plane to the terminal. Again Ugh! We waited another 20 minutes for that person to arrive and do his thing. By the way, I almost forgot. There was one stellar amazing person in all of this mess who kept everyone on a positive note, including her young crew. Jenny, the head flight attendant, was so kind in spite of a lot of grumbling, always had a smile on her face and a funny story to tell.

So over 10 hours after I began a 3-hour flight, we finally set foot in the terminal in Dallas. I asked the lone gate agent how to get to the Hyatt which is supposed to be within walking distance of the airport. He gave me convoluted directions which I tried to follow but got lost. There are very few airport personnel at 2am but I finally found a security guard and asked him. All I know is I ended up in a dark deserted parking lot within view of the Hyatt but behind a short block fence. I finally just called the hotel and they told me to go back to the terminal and they would send a shuttle. Finally, I arrived at my hotel where I got my room, saw the big fluffy bed and just passed out.

Thank goodness there were no issues the next day with getting back to OC. My checked bag was even waiting for me at the OC airport! Let me tell you, with not making it to Baltimore last spring and then trying to get to and from Philly, these recent flight mishaps really make me rethink this flying around the country to do my coin thing. However, I’m sure when the next trip comes around I’ll be excited again but until then I’m happy to remain on the ground!

I can’t tell you how very happy I was to see my hubby, to be home, and of course to see my sweet loving Penny!

Next up: the Long Beach show in two weeks and then the Santa Clara show (where I get to simply drive to/from both!).