Wow, what a show it was! I very much look forward to setting up at the FUN show each year as it has always been one of, if not the best, show of the year – and this year’s show was fantastic and didn’t disappoint! Every dealer I spoke with said they were very busy starting Wednesday all the way through Friday and had a very successful show. Seriously, the FUN board, Katie and her staff really did a stellar job putting this show together with very few hitches.
I was also very excited and looking forward to bringing to the FUN show a small group of amazing RED Indian cents that I recently received from a customer on consignment (sorry for the shameless plug here but these coins are some of the most beautiful high quality Indian cents I’ve been fortunate enough of offer for sale and I think warrant being highlighted)! As you can guess, the 1877 received a lot of attention throughout the show!
So I left sunny OC early on Tuesday. We were having the beginning of the dry gusty Santa Ana winds that were predicted to be very strong for several days so, instead of taking off west over the ocean and then turning east, the planes were taking off directly east into the winds. And the winds make the are clear so it was a beautiful morning when we took off.
I went through Dallas and landed in Orlando that evening gratefully with no flight issues!
I like staying at the Hilton and already had checked into my room that morning on my phone and for the first time I used the mobile key feature which ended up being easy and convenient to use and I didn’t have to fumble through my purse to find my room key the whole time, so I highly recommend it! Here’s the night view from my room.
And the morning view!
Wednesday morning I grabbed some breakfast then headed over to the convention center a couple hours before set up so I could attend the PNG seminar on marketing your coin business. The show was held in it’s usual hall B on the North side of the building, which I understand will conveniently be in the same hall for the next several years.
The PNG program was led by PNG President James Sego and Executive Director John Feigenbaum, and was very well attended. There were several speakers and differing views on marketing a coin business, in particular using social media in various ways to create a marketing campaign depending on the type of business you run – from brick and mortar coin shops like Witter Coins to online coin groups like Coin Dealers Helping Coin Dealers (CDHCD). Some of the types of media included using television ads, short tic tok-type videos, direct listing of coins on social media, video clips of behind the scenes of a coin business, etc.
Seth Witter/Witter Coin
Gwen Massey/CDHCD
Kenny Duncan/U.S. Coins
Set up for the show was at 2pm and by that time the lobby was literally packed with dealers lining up at the escalator and the elevators to get on the bourse floor.
For me, set up day is a whirlwind of activity. In between setting up my booth, dealers will stop by with boxes of coins to show me, which I very much appreciate since I am by myself at my table. Then once my booth is set up, I run around the bourse floor looking for Pretty Pennies for inventory. And once in a while I get lucky and find something for my personal collection – like this beautiful amazing and scarce 1873 PCGS MS64 RD Indian cent in a scarce DOILY holder!
FYI, if any of you would like to see my personal collections including several Indian and Lincoln cents in Doily holders, here’s a link to my personal collections on my website:
I also found a new interesting error for my personal collection – it’s an Indian cent that has a large reverse pre-strike lamination on the right side with an obverse that didn’t get struck up due to the deep reverse lamination underneath that right side area
I picked up quite a few new pieces for my inventory throughout the show, and I am always on the look out for quality key dates as I like to have a good variety of grades for folks looking to fill those tough holes for their collections. I was lucky enough to find THREE nice 1877 Indian cents and FOUR 1955/55 Doubled Dies to add to my inventory (I now practically have a grading set of these key dates!). Here are all the certified coins I acquired throughout the show:
I also found quite a few raw pieces, including a bag of lower cost Lincoln cents that I like to put in my “Treasure Box” at local shows. Included in the bag of raw coins is a large bunch of 1943’s in AU/Unc condition. These are always popular at shows, especially for folks of my generation who like to show them to their kids and grandkids. Also, I’m giving a presentation about pennies to a local high school numismatic club next week about and plan to hand out one of these steel cents to each of the club members and explain their history and the reason for the change in metal.
I also want to take a minute to publicly thank WIZARD COIN SUPPLY https://wizardcoinsupply.com/, WHITMAN PUBLISHING https://wizardcoinsupply.com/, and TRANSLINE WHOLESALE COIN SUPPLIES https://translinesupply.com/ who all generously donated several prior year Red and Blue Books and coin albums to me so I can give one to each of these young aspiring young numismatists. These three wonderful organizations were all very kind and gracious and readily agreed to help me encourage these YN’s to continue learning about numismatics – THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
So after I had finished my running around, and things slowed down later in the afternoon, of course it was time to open one of the bottles of the two wines I brought – one was a wonderful Duckhorn cab and the other was a delicious Del Dotto cab, both 2021 from Napa. But I promised the dealer I bought the Doily from a cup of one of my wines and asked him which he preferred. He said he liked Duckhorn but since he hadn’t tasted Del Dotto before, he chose that one but I decided to open both and let him do a taste comparison. They definitely had different flavors, the Duckhorn being a little more fruity and the Del Dotto was dryer, but both were delicious!
Also, I just had a new more colorful style of business card made – what do you think?!
That night we went to a new restaurant, Christini’s Ristorante Italiano https://christinis.com/ – Italian food is my favorite and their food was very delicious!
When we arrived at our table, there was another table of coin dealers right behind us – Mal Varner and his crew from Alhambra Coin had also discovered this wonderful restaurant!
I started off with a delicious limoncello martini
There was a gentleman walking around the restaurant playing the accordion and when he came by our table and asked what we would like to hear, one of our guys jokingly said “How about Inagaddadavida?” And what do you know, that’s exactly what he played on his accordion – what a hoot!
Here’s my usual dinner crew – Matt Chapman, me, Neil Ulrich, Kenny and Rick Snow, and Ron Mirr
The manager and Kenny Snow
Of course, we had some delicious wine to go with our wonderful dinners!
We ordered this sampling of appetizers and we were very surprised when each one of us received a separate dish with huge portions of each type of appetizer!
And our delicious meals of course! I had the chicken piccata – one of my favorite Italian dishes!
At the end of our meal, I was presented with this beautiful rose by our waiter – it was a very sweet way to end our evening!
Throughout the show, folks would notice on my sign that I was from California and would ask me if I was affected by the horrendous wild fires in Southern California. Fortunately for me, we live in Orange County which is an hour south of Los Angeles so, other than a blown down fence, we haven’t been directly affected by the winds and fires.
But let me take a moment to acknowledge these terrible fires. As I write this, we are still having Santa Ana winds, but not nearly as strong as they were last week. We here in SoCal (and throughout the state) experience winds and wild fires just about every year, but we in SoCal have never had such a devastating result like these fires. The super strong winds and low rainfall and very dry terrain came together to create devastating destruction throughout the entire L.A. area. The homes and restaurants that burnt down in Malibu along PCH are particularly sad for me to see, as I grew up in Oxnard and have traveled up and down PCH through Malibu past all the beautiful homes along the highway literally hundreds of times to visit my folks over the past 45 years since I’ve lived in Orange County, and have even had dinner at several of the restaurants in Malibu which are sadly now just ashes.
Here are a few of the more dramatic photos we’ve all seen of the fires, including a photo of a very beautiful classic mustang on fire which of course makes me appreciate my mustang all the more 
I sincerely can’t imagine having to go through what all these thousands of folks are going through in losing their loved ones, homes, pets and their cherished photos and special momentos. I still remember the horrible deadly fires several years ago in Northern California that leveled the town of Paradise, and of course the fires in Maui, and other towns over the years that have been destroyed. I personally know many coin dealers in the L.A. area and hope and pray they are all okay. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been affected by this horrible devastation. 
On Thursday the bourse opened to the dealers at 8am and as usual there was a thick crowd of dealers waiting to go down the escalator to do more business and “man” their tables before the public was let in at 10am.
The show opened to the public at 10am so I went up the escalator around 9:45 to take photos of the public but was surprised to discover the lobby was not quite as packed as it usually was on opening day.
However, over the next hour, the public kept streaming in through the doors and the bourse began filling up with the usual buzz getting louder and louder all around – it didn’t take long for the aisles and everyone’s tables to become crowded with anxious collectors searching for particular coins, including my table! For a few hours, I consistently had an average of 5 people at my table. And I was kept busy well into the late afternoon – it was really great! Here are photos I took around the bourse.
Fellow wine lover WineSteven stopped by to say hi
Watersport/Bob also stopped by.
A guy named Romaine Howey specifically came by my table to show me this interesting penny which he said is a very rare 1942 pattern J-2080 special strike. He said he had it “authenticated” and was getting ready to take it to get certified. I hope he’s right and wished him luck!
Another person stopped by and showed me this interesting and scarce double clip large cent
That afternoon, I enjoyed sharing more of my two cabs with my friends at Sedwick & Associates shipwreck coins. They in turn shared some of the wine they brought, so we had an impromptu wine tasting!
Thursday night I went to dinner at Capital Grille (https://www.thecapitalgrille.com/home) with my foreign coin dealer friends
We started off with a delicious bottle of Ramey Chardonnay that one of our friends, Don Chinick, who drove to the show had brought to share with us
Don and Karl Stephens also brought these other reds which they shared with us
The Capital Grille is known for their amazing steaks so I went with their filet medallions and lobster tail – it was absolutely delicious! I highly recommend the Capital Grill if you’ve never been there!
Don also brought a very delicious dessert wine that had a refreshing slightly apple flavor, it was a perfect ending to our dinner!
When I got back to the hotel I went by the bar and found a group of my friends still there so I joined them for a quick nightcap.
These are folks from NGC
Friday morning I got up early to attend the FUN 2025 Numismatic Ambassadors awards breakfast.
The Ambassador award is given to unsung heroes at the grassroots level of coin collecting, as well as nationally known numismatists. It’s a service award for those numismatists who have given countless hours of service to their local, regional, or national organization. I was very honored to receive this award last year, and now I am able to nominate and vote for new Ambassadors. This year the award was given to these individuals:
After the awards breakfast I took a few minutes to take photos around the bourse floor before the public was let in.
Folks at the NGC/PMG table
The PCGS table (with James Sego)
Peter Treglia at the Stacks Bowers table
The folks at the Whitman/Grey Sheet table – they just launched a new Red Book Quarterly magazine which, according to Vice President Patrick Ian Perez, is “a retail price guide for coins and currency and is a companion with up-to-the-minute that may have changed since the Red Book was printed.”
More bourse photos
I was very surprised to see that we actually had several booths with various types of food at the back corner of the bourse floor with a large eating area – and the food was really good! I especially enjoyed the crepe booth!
Here is my good friend and exonumia mentor Alan Weinberg – he has found for me several scarce and beautiful penny pocket mirrors and encased pennies throughout the years!
This is a rare encased 1916 Newark 250th Anniversary Lincoln cent that I recently purchased off eBay thanks to Alan who gave me a heads up and advised me about its rarity – he said in his 60 years he had never seen an encased cent like this one, so I was very pleased when I ended up winning it (and he wasn’t wrong since I had at least one other bidder who knew it was a rare piece and also placed a high bid, but luckily mine was higher!)
I also recently picked up this scarce oval aluminum encased Lincoln cent. The oval encasements are not very common as this is the first one I’ve seen, and I’ve been collecting penny encasements for over 20 years.
As I mentioned and as many folks know I collect penny encasements and other penny exonumia, sometimes people will stop by my table and kindly gift me various exonumia pieces like this fun Lincoln cent horse cut out. It was given to me by Dave Earp – yes, he is a descendant of Wyatt Earp!
I was also given these encasements by a couple other kind and thoughtful collectors
On Friday afternoon, I attended the Fly-In Club meeting (a club for Flying Eagle and Indian cent enthusiasts).
We are launching a new website and Facebook/Instagram pages to promote and offer information and education on Flying Eagle and Indian cents to the collecting community. Ryan Delane of Interfanatic Digital Marketing https://interfanatic.com/ did an amazing job of creating the website and Facebook/Instagram pages for our club. I encourage everyone to check out the Fly-In Club website, consider joining our club, and feel free to offer any comments and/or suggestions: https://flyinclub.org/. Rick Snow (rick@indiancent.com) and Chris Pilliod (cpilliod@msn.com) will be managing the website, I will be managing our Facebook page (charmy@thepennylady.com), and Eric Lindholm (ericlindholm74@gmail.com) will be managing the Instagram page.
Along those lines, Ryan created my website several years ago and has also created a new updated website for me which will launch later this week: https://thepennylady.com/. There are no major changes but it will have several improvements, updated pages, and will be more streamlined and easier to use. I’m very excited to see the final product, so be sure to check it out later this week!
Another forum member stopped by my table to say hi – Greg/WalkerGuy
This is me and my very dear friend Dino Koromvokis of Ace Coins – he recently had some health issues and I hadn’t seen him in a couple years, so it was good to catch up with him!
This is another very dear friend, Neil Ulrich, who usually works at Rick Snow’s table but also generously helps me at my table when I need to be away for any amount of time!
Friday ended up being very busy as well as very productive for me, and when things finally slowed down, I welcomed my “wine time.” Gus Hernandez of HKI Coins graciously shared his delicious bottle of Napa Far Niente cab with me and his friend Chad Caldwell of Dorado Trade Group
Patrick Kuski and Scott Bryant of Dorado Trade Group were also at my table for the wine festivities
Friday night my usual crew went to probably the best steakhouse in town – Vito’s Chop House https://vitoschophouse.com/location/. The service and food was over-the-top amazing – and the wine was delicious too!
Saturday morning when I got tot he boarse, I was anxious to see the exhibits on display in the back of the room. The awards program was scheduled for later that day so there were no ribbons on the cases yet and I haven’t seen any announcements as to which exhibits won awards. There were some really fun and eye catching exhibits and I enjoyed viewing them! Here are some of my favorites, and forgive me if the exhibit cases aren’t in correct order as sometimes when I download them here, they don’t necessarily appear in order.
There was also the usual gold panning booth set up near the exhibit area which was popular with the kiddos throughout the show.
And my booth!
Soon it was time wrap it up, tear down the booth, pack up, and head to the airport. It had been a whirlwind of a week and I was exhausted and looking forward to going home – and especially looking forward to my usual relaxing jammy day on Sunday! Other than 5 gate changes in Orlando, I was very fortunate and grateful not to have any flight issues both coming and going.
So bye Orlando til next year….
Hello OC!
And here’s my chubby Penny who was obviously very excited to see me (“ho hum”)!
Phew! I didn’t realize I took so many pics! So that’s a wrap for the 2025 FUN show. As I said above, it was another really active, busy, successful and very fun FUN show – and I truly enjoyed every minute of being there!
Next up: The San Diego Coinarama show next week (1/25-1/26/25), the Sacramento McIntosh show (2/7-2/8/25), and the Long Beach Show (2/20-2/22/25).