Charmy’s Coin Show Reports

The following are my Coin Show Reports about my adventures of the various coin shows that I attend throughout the country.

Charmy’s 2026 CENTRAL STATES NUMISMATIC SOCIETY’S (CSNS) Show Report w/lots of Pics!

So sorry for the delay in posting my report – I’ve been swamped with paperwork and processing coins, as well as Grandma duties on Tuesdays!

But let me just say, that was one crazy busy wonderful show! Everyone I spoke with said it was their best CSNS show ever, and I have to agree! I feel like this report is almost going to be a duplicate of my FUN Show report since this show was as busy as that show! Thank you so much Cindy and all the CSNS folks who put on one helleva show! Your hard work and attention to details, the public and the dealers shows in how organized this show is and how smoothly this show is run.

Also, I didn’t get around the bourse floor during the show as much as I would have liked so this report has mostly photos of people and social events. I do apologize there aren’t more photos of coins, or exhibits and displays of numismatic items in this particular report.

So I flew from OC on the same flight to Chicago with my Fallbrook friends who, since they travel all around the world, have passes to the Admiral’s Club for American Airlines and we were able to hang out, have some snacks and beverages, and relax before our flight. As with most of my shows, I was very much looking forward to being at another coin show!

It was a beautiful morning, with clear skies and smooth “sailing” all the way to Chicago!

And happily, Chicago had perfect warm weather when we landed!

We grabbed our bags, which were already on the baggage carousal by the time we got to baggage claim, and headed to the Renaissance Hotel. I settled into my room, which had a really nice view, then went to the restaurant bar for a cocktail before dinner.

Of course there were several other dealers and collectors who were there for the show so I enjoyed conversing about the expectations for the show and everyone seemed as enthusiastic as I was to be there!

I ended up at the Rivers Casino on the spur of the moment where I came out $120 ahead! When I got back to the hotel, I went over to the Gather bar (which is the main meeting place at the hotel/convention center). There were several dealer folks enjoying the evening before dealer set up day.

I went up to the bar to grab a glass of wine before I went up to my room and ran into Allen Rowe and his lovely wife Cindy from Northern Nevada Coin. I really enjoyed spending time with these two and happily discovered that they both were very much wine lovers like me!

I initially went for a glass of wine, but Allen ended up buying a bottle for us to share – and you definitely can’t go wrong with an Artemis from Stags Leap!

Allen even showed me a photo of his “wine cellar” which blew me away!

Allen then told me about a very reasonably priced wine called Elyse out of Napa that he enjoyed and had brought several bottles with him to the show. He even went up to his room and brought one down so I could try it (the bar very graciously took a blind eye to us sharing the bottle there). And I have to say it was very delicious and I look forward to buying some for my own stock – thank you Allen and Cindy!

Soon it was time to get some sleep so I could get up early for PNG Dealer Day set up in the morning!

As I mentioned, Wednesday was PNG Dealer Day which opened at 9am for dealers who signed up, and 10am for early bird dealers who were walking the show. I personally enjoy dealer day because, since I’m along at my table, it gives me an opportunity to walk around and buy from other dealers and fill want lists before the bourse floor gets busy (the general dealer set up time was 4pm-8pm later that day). Here are a few photos I took during PNG Dealer Day.

The show program guide is always an invaluable resource so I can find my favorite dealers, know what the show hours are, and find meeting rooms!

I really admire this young man with the cowboy hat and big backpack – he is one serious collector, well on his way to being a great dealer. I’ve seen him at previous shows, watched him at the Portland PNNA show a couple weeks ago, and saw him again at this show wheeling and dealing with dealers throughout the show. What an amazing young man!

I was able to find a large quantity of very nice coins and even filled in a few holes in some of my customers’ want lists. These are all the coins I picked up throughout the show, including this very tough 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse in PCGS AU50 – which is the first one I’ve owned!

I also acquired another scarce piece – this beautiful 1990 No S Lincoln Cent in PCGS PF68 RD DCAM.

Later in the afternoon I opened one of the bottles of wine I had brought, actually one of my most favorite wines – a Rombauer Zinfandel – which I shared with several of my dealer friends.

That night I went to dinner at Chicago Prime Steak with my usual group – Rick Snow and his son Kenny, and Ron Mirr and his sister Karen.

We started off with a nice bottle of Mt. Veeder.

And enjoyed a couple of seafood appetizers – oysters and octopus!

Coincidentally, Ron ordered a bottle of Stags Leap Artemis to have with our dinner!

And everyone really enjoyed their main dishes!

The show opened to the public on Thursday and wow, I was thrilled to see there was a huge line of folks waiting to be let in!

One of my customers stopped by to check out my coins and showed me a photo he had just taken of a car’s license plate he happened to be behind – my kind of license plate!

So the show was SOOOO busy on Thursday that I literally NEVER left my table the entire day! I am very pleased to say that my table consistently had people in front of it the entire day, mostly buying but also selling coins. Therefore, I was not able to get around to take photos during the show, but the bourse was crowded with serious buyers until late in the afternoon! Wow, what a day! I don’t recall ever having a day like that!

One of my good Chicago friends, Alan Flint, stopped by to say hi and we briefly caught up with each other. His brother Bruce is also a good friend with whom I worked for many years during my long-ago days at Morrison & Foerster as a litigation paralegal. It’s always such a pleasure to see and chat with Alan.

Another good friend, Linda Sekulich, stopped by later in the day. Her husband Larry, was the instructor at a Summer Seminar class that I took on how to prepare an exhibit. We ended up competing against each other for Best of Show at a subsequent ANA show when I was exhibiting my “Penny Potpourri” exhibit. Larry ended up beating me by 1 point! But my exhibit took 2nd place, as well as People’s Choice. I broke out the Del Dotto Port that I had brought with me for some of my dealer friends who had “requested” it. I even brought tiny little solo shot cups – that port is so very delicious!

That evening after the show the PNG was sponsoring a cocktail event at The Gather for all the dealers. It’s turned into an annual event, and has become very popular. I know I look forward to socializing with my fellow dealers after a busy day at the show. By the time I arrived, the place was already packed! Here are photos I took of all the folks who attended. Thank you PNG!!

When I arrived at the show on Friday morning, I was very pleased to see there already was a nice crowd of folks waiting to get into the show.

A dealer friend stopped by my table since he knows I collect penny exonumia and brought me this very cool 1902 Indian cent encased celluloid “spinner” with an original ribbon from 1902. Even though I already have two of this exact piece, I went ahead and bought this one too.

Friday was also very busy, not as much as Thursday, but steady. At 2pm, I was giving a presentation on Collecting and Investing in Quality Cents for the Fly-In Club. So I was fortunate that Ron Mirr’s sister Karen was able to watch my table while I was gone – Thank you Karen!

This is my very dear friend and former fellow WIN Board Member Kathy Freeland who collects Red Cross memorabilia gave a presentation on “The American Red Cross in World War II.”

My coin dealer “show husband” James Sego (he and I have been to dinner with other couples at various shows and we were usually the ones without our spouses so we often paired up at these dinner events 😉 ) showed me these awesome super low mintage proof gold coins (top pop/near top pop) he had in his case. He always seems to come up with some amazing pieces and I appreciate him showing and educating me on coins other then cents!

Also on Friday as I’m sure many of you heard, there was a little commotion near the Sedwick Shipwreck Auction booth. Noah Lehman/Rarity 7 who had a booth right next to the commotion was able to take some photos and described the arrest as follows:

“Our friend Tony Gryckiewicz was offered a coin that seemed way too cheap. We checked with the folks at Sedwick and turns out it had been recently stolen from their buyer. Police were called, Tony did a heroic job of stalling the two guys shopping the coin and the Schaumburg police cuffed them and took em away. Dan Decker and Nicolas Morabito did a great job preventing the guys from running out a wide open door in the back.” Also, per the folks at Sedwick, after they were alerted about the coin and confirmed they had sold it at a recent auction, they called their customer who had bought the coin, and those folks confirmed that the coin was indeed “missing” and not in their possession. The coin was a 1709 Lima Eight Escudos (1715 Fleet McGregor Collection) MS62 Gold Coin valued at approximately $40,000.

Big kudos and great teamwork to all involved, and chalk one up for the good guys!

That afternoon I opened the bottle of Del Dotto cab I had brought – it’s another favorite of mine – and of most folks who try it! If you ever get to Napa, be sure to do a cave barrel wine tasting at one of their wineries! Their wine is top notch!!

After the show on Friday, my dear friends Karl and Joanne Stephens (foreign coin dealers from Fallbrook) went to Chicago Prime Italian for dinner. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Schaumburg (by the way, Schaumburg doesn’t allow you to bring your own bottles of wine to a restaurant). We had a lovely Rombauer Chardonnay to start with, followed by a delicious Duckhorn Merlot with dinner.

We were seated right next to a large group of other coin dealers who were having a great time, especially when they ordered this fantastic glazing dessert!

I arrived at the show a little early Saturday morning so I could walk around, take some photos, and check out more dealers’ inventories.

My very good friend Dino Koromvokis/Ace Coins

Tyler Jorgenson/Great American Coin Show Rep

NGC

CAC

PCGS

CSNS

Sam and Emily Ernst (Mitch Ernst’s kiddos)

Robert Julian and his amazing coin art

North Bay Coins/Greg Krill’s Pellet Estate Wines

Although I had a few decent sales, Saturday was very slow with several tables already vacated (as is typical for a Saturday). Soon it was time to pack up and head for the airport. Luckily, the day was beautiful and there were no weather issues like we’ve had in the past. It was again smooth sailing to the airport and all the way home….

Good-bye Chicago til September (the GACS)!

Hello my pretty Penny who loves laying all over my table (or in the boxes) whenever I’m working on coins!

Next up, the Buena Park Show in June, the San Diego Coinarama in July and the Pittsburgh ANA in August!

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Charmy’s February 2026 NEW LONG BEACH EXPO SHOW REPORT w/lots of Pics!

Well, it looks like the Long Beach Expo is back with a big bang!

For me, and for many of the dealers I spoke with, this was was one of the BEST Long Beach shows we’ve had in a long time. When Stack’s announced that it had purchased this show and was reviving it, I was thrilled and eager to sign up, but also a little apprehensive how it would turn out given some of the changes, additional table costs, smaller show, no Saturday, etc. But the newly trimmed down, coin-focused show proved to be just what this show needed! I understand there were a lot of hands that helped make this show successful – from David Talk who did an excellent job of coordinating everything, to Kerry Pieropan/Pacific Expos which owns the Buena Park and Anaheim shows assisting with marketing, etc., to all the Stack’s staff who helped make the show run smoothly. We dealers are very grateful to everyone who helped make this show as successful as it was – thank you!

Here are shots of the newly configured/slightly smaller bourse floor before the dealers were let in. They shortened the length of the room at the back of the room and the tables were a little more spread out.

There were a few minor glitches, mostly as a result of convention center rules, like dealers not being able to bring our weapons into the convention center even though many of us have CCW permits (I did not know this and had my weapon at the bottom of my purse which was not detected when they checked my purse), not being able to carry glass containers (like bottles of wine – but they never stopped me since my bottles were in a padded bag, thank goodness!), not being able to bring off-site food in (this has always been an issue), having to pay $14 for a simple plain hot dog, poor wifi/cell service on the floor, and a new mandatory required credit card (rather than cash) to pay for parking. Again, these were all convention center rules, not Stack’s issues but perhaps some of them can be negotiated for future shows.

In any event, like I said, it really was a great show, super busy on Wednesday and Thursday, and steady on Friday. I found quite a few quality Indian and Lincoln cents to add to my inventory, and sold many coins from my inventory, including a large amount of pieces from my very popular “Treasure Box” as well as 2025 cent rolls! I even picked up 2025 and 2025-D cents both PCGS MS68 RED (top pop)! Also, as I was so busy most of the show, I wasn’t able to get away as much as I would have liked to take more photos but I did my best to get some photos.

As was announced, set up this time was on Tuesday starting at noon, so I arrived a little early hoping there would be the usual dealer trading room, but they didn’t have one this time so I just socialized with the other dealers in the lobby.

All three grading services (PCGS, NGC, ANACS) were lined up together on the right wall (usually they are on opposite ends of the bourse floor) – I think it was convenient for customers but I’m not sure how the grading services liked it. In any event, it didn’t take long for them to begin doing business!

After Rich and I finished setting up my booth, I took the opportunity to run around the bourse looking for inventory and coins on my customer want lists. Here are the coins I acquired throughout the show, including a beautiful tough date 1914-D in PCGS MS64 RB, a very nice 1955/55 DDO in PCGS MS62 BN, and the afore-mentioned Top Pop 2025 Shield cents:

These are a couple pics taken from my booth on set up day

This very nice young man, Connor Price, stopped by my table to introduce himself. He now works at Stack’s and is the younger brother of one of my most favorite people in all of numismatics, Steve Price, who is the Director of Numismatic Business Development at Stack’s. Steve and I go way back when it was just starting out making his way in the numismatic world. It was a huge pleasure meeting Conner and knowing that he’s following in his brother’s footsteps!

After I finished running around looking for new coins, it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I brought. I really love Caymus cab but this time I decided to try one of their red Zinfandels. It was delicious!

That evening we went to one of our favorite usual restaurants – King’s Fish House – which is just up the street from the convention center. In addition to their delicious sourdough bread and tasty Macadamia nut crusted halibut, they offer free corkage on any bottles of wine you bring into the restaurant. However, they have since changed their rules and only offer free corkage on the first bottle, then $25 on each bottle after that. We were very disappointed as we usually bring around 4 bottles every time we dine there, so we discussed it with the manager that we were unaware of that new policy and she was kind enough to not charge us this time for our wine. I brought a Napa Valley Del Dotto Sangiovese and Joanne brought a delicious bottle of Frank Family Chardonnay (two of the people who were supposed to join us ended up not making it so we ended up with only 2 bottles).

By the way, a weird thing happened when we were waiting for the rest of our party. When me and Rich walked into the restaurant, a kind of messy looking man (I’m guessing he was a street person) was standing next to the wall very close to the doorway, so when I opened the door with Rich behind me, the door must have “touched” the man but I was unaware of that. A little while later I was told one of my friends who was meeting us may be outside waiting for us so when I went to go get him, the manager who was near the front door stopped me from going outside. The manager told me the man outside the door said he was “going to stab me.” I was confused and said “stab someone?” He said “no, YOU.” I literally dropped my jaw in shock. He told me that the man said I “hit” him with the door so he was going to stab me. I asked him if he called the police? The manager told me they had already called the security patrol who patrols Pine Avenue to remove the man, but that I needed to stay inside the restaurant until he was gone. I don’t know what they ended up doing with that man but he wasn’t around when it was time for us to leave. Rich later told me that the guy said something derogatory about me after I had walked into the restaurant but he didn’t think anything of it nor did he tell me at the time. Again, I was quite shocked but glad the restaurant was on top of it and handled it quickly.

The convention center and surrounding area at night is nicely lit up and very pretty!

The next day we arrived just after 9am and there was a line of folks waiting to get into the convention center at the front door (the dealers entered at a different door).

There weren’t many people in line at registration when I arrived, but at 10am I understand there was a very long line of folks waiting to register and/or enter the bourse but I didn’t get a chance to take a photo. I heard from several customers that they had to wait in a long line if they hadn’t pre-registered. From the beginning when the public began entering the bourse floor, there was a buzz and it just kept growing. The bourse floor soon became packed! And the line at the PCGS table didn’t take long to extend all the way to the front of the bourse floor! As I mentioned, I wasn’t able to take a lot of photos on Wednesday since my table was steadily busy, but here are a couple pics I took around the floor a little later.

My good buddy Ron Guth stopped by to say hi

I don’t think the bourse died down until around 3-4pm which is unusual, so we weren’t able to relax and enjoy a glass of wine until after 4pm – which is a very good thing! But when we did, I opened this delicious bottle of Napa V. Sattui Bacci which is a red blend that is delicious, slightly fruity, and easy to drink.

Here’s my great booth helper Rich and I enjoying our wine!

That night we went to dinner at 555 Steakhouse which is also just up the hill on Pine.

Ron Guth and my friend John Cox also joined me and Rich and our usual dinner companions Karl and Joanne Stephens.

The table right next to us was also full of coin dealers!

We brought a nice selection of wines to enjoy with our dinner – I brought one of my very favorite wines, Rombauer Zinfandel!

And here are some of the dishes we had – I really enjoyed the trip of filet medallions with different sauces!

Thursday was another very busy day. I kept selling quite a bit of miscellaneous numismatic items out of my “Treasure Box” which included off center Lincoln cents, packs of the 2009 P/D cents, uncirculated 1943 cents in 2×2 flips, packs of various lower grade Lincoln cents and Indian cents, odd medals and tokens, casino chips, as well as several rolls of 2025 cents. I also bought a large group of low grade/common date Indian cents from a customer who had inherited them from my father (which I will separate and also put into packs for my Treasure Box).

Again, it was a very busy day so I didn’t get around the bourse floor to take many photos on Thursday. However, an old customer of mine who no longer collects Indian cents, brought me the album he had put together of XF/AU Indian cents (it was missing the key dates but still had some scarce dates) which I ended up buying. Some of the coins he had broken out of certified holders but saved the labels and taped them to the pages of this book.

A kind customer who knows I collect various penny exonumia pieces stopped by and gave me this neat “hobo penny” for my collection.

Bob/Watersport and his son Aaron/Gunfunko stopped by to say hi

I saw three of my favorite PCGS folks!

Rick Snow had driven with his family to Long Beach and were staying in an AirBNB with their pup. So he brought Yuki along with him and Kenny to the show on Thursday. Yuki was very well behaved and stayed quietly behind their table, but was happy to go out on a stroll now and then – he is a very pretty sweet dog!

Thursday night was set aside for a cocktail/buffet reception that Stack’s put together at L’Opera for the dealers. It didn’t start until 7:30pm so we first went over to Cafe Seville (right across the street) for some appetizers and cocktails.

At the reception, in addition to cocktails they were serving all kinds of delicious wines!

I wandered into the bar area where I ran into Greg Roberts, CEO of Stack’s Bowers. He generously offered me a glass of the wine he was drinking – it was an estate bottled 2015 Dominus Napa Valley fred wine signed by Christian Moueix (valued at $300-$350) – and it was absolutely delicious! I felt honored that he shared a glass of that wonderful wine with me.

Here are some of the other folks who attended the reception:

Friday started off a little quiet but soon built up and the bourse became pretty busy for several hours.

This adorable young man stopped by my table with his grandparents. It was great to see him as he has been coming to see me for several years as he completely his Lincoln cent album.

My box of raw coins are also popular and ever since the FUN show they have been picked through and needed some attention. So another dealer brought by a box full of lower end pieces and I was happy to add to a nice new group of Indian and Lincoln cents to my raw inventory!

Soon it was time to pack up and head home. We were concerned about having to deal with Friday night traffic on our SoCal freeways which can be a bumper-to-bumper nightmare, so we tried to get on the road a little early. That helped as well as taking the carpool lane, and we arrived home in a little over an hour. As usual, my hubby and of course Penny were there waiting for me (she’s not to crazy about this stuffed Penny replica)!

So that’s about it! The next Long Beach show has been scheduled for September 9-11, 2026, and I hope to see some more of you there! And next up for me is the Buena Park show (March 7-8) followed by the McIntosh Sacramento show (March 13-14).

Charmy’s Big 2026 FUN COIN SHOW Report w/Lots of Pics!

WOW! What a show! The FUN show folks sure know how to put on a great coin show!

As I’m sure you’ve all heard that this year’s FUN show was more than fantastic, more than busy, and more than a great show – for many of us dealers, it was one of the, if not THE, best shows ever! I heard that Thursday was a record setting attendance at any coin show, and for me it was so busy that I never left my table and wasn’t even able to take photos around the floor to show you how busy the crowds were. So you’ll see that I “borrowed” a few photos that folks from the FUN show took of the long lines of people waiting to get in and also photos overlooking the bourse floor showing just how many people were shopping for coins!

And ever since I arrived home late Saturday night, I have been trying to dig out from all the paperwork, processing and organizing new inventory, photographing coins, sales and website updates, spreadsheet updates, etc. – not to mention organizing photos for this show report! So even though it took me a few days, I’m finally able to devote some time to preparing this show report!

I left for the show on Tuesday with a big happy face since I always look forward to attending the FUN show!

Take off from OC this time was towards to the mountains (east) instead of over the ocean (west), not sure why but it’s usually due to winds

I arrived in Orlando late Tuesday night with no flight issues, thank goodness! This is the view of the convention center from my hotel

I ended up not attending the Dealer Day activities since I had already made my flight reservations when they announced that the Dealer Day would start on Tuesday and opted instead to do my “shopping” Wednesday afternoon on the bourse floor. I ended up finding quite a few nice pieces that day and throughout the show, including a pretty scarce 1856 Flying Eagle in PCGS PF63/CAC which I sold to the first person I showed it to!

The same thing happened to this gorgeous 1914-D in PCGS MS65 RB/CAC – it went to the first person who looked at it in my case!

I also acquired these amazing better date coins during the show:

And these are the rest of the Pretty Pennies I bought from dealers and customers throughout the show:

I managed to take a couple photos from Dealer set up day

And of course, towards the end of the day, I took a breather and opened one of the bottles of wine I brought – one of my very favorite zinfandels – Rombauer!

Not surprisingly, several dealer friends stopped by for a taste, so it didn’t take long for the end of that bottle, so I opened up the other bottle I brought – another one of my favorites, Del Dotto Cave Blend, which I was able to nurse through Thursday!

That night one of my good customers, Lewis, invited me to dinner at the Capitol Grille with his wife Colleen and their friend Steve. The company was wonderful, the food was amazing, and the Joseph Phelps cab was delicous! They even had this very unusual beautiful glass wine decanter that had a point on its base that leaned partly on its side in a hole on the platform, then pivoted/rolled around the dish.

Thursday morning I got in early to see if I could find some more pennies for my inventory. They held the ribbon cutting ceremony just before 10am, and soon it was time for the public to be let in.

These photos were taken by the FUN Show people of the long line and folks gathering in the lobby

I got a couple shots as the public came down the stairs and entered the bourse but my photos don’t capture the masses of folks who just kept coming and coming.

Here are a few shots I took looking out from my table early on Thursday

And as I mentioned above, here are some shots taken by the FUN show people of the lines of people waiting to get in as well as what the bourse floor looked like on Thursday.

In one of their photos you can actually see my table in the vast sea of tables!

Here are pics of just a few of the many folks who stopped by my table

Frank/Goldfinger1969

Dan Perkins/Catbert

Larry Jewett/AMOS MEDIA/Coin World Editorial Director

Brantley Ditto (One Dot Dash Collectibles), a fellow Facebook member, saw a recent post I made on one of the Error Coin groups where I posted various doublestruck Indian cent errors from my personal collection, and he had one he wanted to sell, so he brought it to show me at the FUN show – of course I was happy to add this very cool 1904 double struck, off center, with a brockage Indian cent error to my collection!

Thursday was THE VERY BEST DAY of any show I’ve ever attended. It was so crazy busy that I never left my table the whole day. Business didn’t even slow down until after 5pm which is very unusual. Every dealer I spoke with the next day said they were inundated with people buying (and selling) at their table on Thursday, me included. I don’t think 5 minutes went by without people looking, buying, and selling coins at my table. Thursday was simply crazy fantastic!! I didn’t even get to pour some of my wine until after 5pm – that should tell you something!

That evening I went with my foreign coin friends to dinner – they chose the Capitol Grille and even though I was just there, I didn’t mind at all since they have a good variety of delicious meals.

Some of my friends brought wine to share – and every bottle was delicious, including the Grgich Hills Chardonnay

Once again, the food was amazing!

Friday morning, as a prior recipient of the FUN Numismatic Ambassadors Award, I attended this year’s inductee breakfast. The Numismatic Ambassador Award honors both unsung heroes at the grassroots level of coin collecting and nationally recognized numismatists who have devoted countless hours of service to local, regional, and national organizations. Sponsored by the Florida United Numismatists (F.U.N.), new ambassadors are announced each January at the annual F.U.N. Convention. It’s the commitment of individuals like these people that helps support ANA’s mission to educate and inspire people to study and collect coins and related items.

Carol Bastable, Len Augsburger, Mike Bean, and Donna Nunex (ANA)

I sat next to my dear friend and fellow former WIN member, Lisa Loos (she and her husband Scott run the Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association and put on shows in Tukwila and Portland – though the Tukwila show recently moved to Portland due to the new sales tax issue).

This is Vulcanize who stopped by my table on Friday to say hi – it was really nice to put a face with the user name!

Ben Franklin even made a brief stop to say hi!

So even though Friday wasn’t nearly as busy as Thursday, business was still steady and strong, and all the dealers I spoke with said they were very pleased with the traffic on Friday.

That night we went to Vito’s Chop House for dinner, one of my favorite steakhouses! I went with my usual buds, Ron Mirr and his sister Karen, and Rick Snow and his son Kenny.

We started with an appetizer of stone crabs and oysters (though I’m not a fan of oysters). We also had a bottle of Mt. Veeder cab which was absolutely delicious – so much so that we ended up having two more bottles of that same wine throughout dinner.

The food was amazing, as were the desserts!

On Saturday morning, I came in early before the public was let in and took some time to take pictures around the bourse.

Here are the hard working folks at PCGS

Equally hard working folks at NGC

I also was able to view the collector exhibits – here are a few that caught my eye!

As many of you know, I also collect penny exonumia, including penny pocket mirrors. I have an extensive penny pocket mirror collection with over 120 pieces, so it’s gotten much harder to find one I don’t already have. So, a dealer friend who knows I collect penny pocket mirrors, found this new piece for me and brought it to the FUN show. This bright red 1902 Indian cent pocket mirror from a dentist in Boston who manufactured “hand-carved teeth” is quite pristine and I was very happy to have it in my collection!

Also, a customer stopped by to look at some coins and who also knows I collect penny pocket mirrors happened to mention that another dealer in the back of the room had an oval shaped mirror for sale and showed me a picture of that piece, which I looked up in my database and discovered it was one I didn’t have. So I rushed over there only to be told it was just sold to a collector who was still sitting at their table! I tried to buy it from him, however, he really wanted to keep it (didn’t blame him) but said if he ever sold it, he would sell it to me.

Another collector who knows about my penny pocket mirror passion stopped by and gave me this beautiful 2004 pocket mirror from the Encased Collectors International organization.

This is my good gal pal Billie Blattel from the GreySheet. She too was so busy at the show that we didn’t have much time to catch up so I grabbed her when she walked by my table just to say hi and take a quick photo!

I stopped by my good friend James Sego’s table because I knew he had a set of the scarce Omega cents so I took photos of his set!

James also had these gorgeous very rare gold pieces from 1855, 1877, and 1879, all CAC’d. The 1855 is a 2-year type with a mintage of only 12. The 1877 is the finest known with a mintage of only 20. And the Stella has a mintage of only 425.

Another dealer friend has this beautiful very scarce 1969-S Doubled Die Obv for sale – it’s a coin I have yet to own!

Soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport. I am very thankful for the FUN show people who work so hard to put on such a fantastic show, making sure everything runs smoothly, and bringing in a record number of collectors. Even though this was an amazing show, I was exhausted and very much looking forward to getting home. Luckily I had no flight issues and had smooth flying all the way. Bye Orlando until next year….

I was very happy to see my hubby and of course my own Pretty Penny!

Next up: The San Diego Coinarama (1/24-1/25) and the new Stack’s-owned Long Beach show where I have my same table No. 615 (2/18-2/20).

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Charmy’s 2025 Rosemont/Chicago Great American Coin Show Report w/lots of pics!

Since I wasn’t able to attend the ANA in Oklahoma City (the first ANA WFM Show I’ve missed since I’ve been attending ANA shows), it feels like it’s been quite a while since I was at a large show and prepared a show report. Therefore, I was really looking forward to attending this show and really hoped that it would be busy and successful – and I was NOT disappointed.

I was very happy as I settled into my seat for my flight from sunny OC to Chicago. And I always enjoy the view as we fly over Newport Beach with the pretty coastline and then turn around and head east over the hills.

A few hours later we were flying over Chicago and into O’Hare.

I checked into my room at the Hyatt (I had a view of the convention center from my room), grabbed a bite and a glass of wine at the bar, then settled in for the night.

Beautiful view from my room in the morning

Wednesday was Dealer Day so I headed over to the convention center early, checked my bags into security, got my badge and headed into the trading room which was already buzzing with dealers trading back and forth.

I made my usual rounds, asking dealers if they had any boxes of pennies, which most did. I ended up finding quite a few great Indian and Lincoln cents from several dealers at the trading room, as well as throughout the show, including one of the nicest 1914-D Lincoln cents (PCGS MS64+ RB/RED) I’ve come across in a long time, as well as several other very pretty pennies! I was also very pleased with being able to find several quality pieces throughout the show specifically for my customers’ collections.

Here is the bourse floor waiting to be filled by all of us dealers!

At 3pm it was time for the dealers to set up on the bourse floor which began at 3pm. While waiting to get into the show, some of you may have heard that Rick Snow had a health issue and passed out while standing in line and was taken to the hospital. Most folks know Rick and I are good friends and several people have asked me how he is doing. Without going into personal specifics, he was released from the hospital on Friday morning and came to the show looking great, then flew home on Saturday, and is doing fine.

Here’s me all set up and ready for business!

After I did some more “shopping” around the floor, it was time to open a bottle of wine. I brought one of my very favorites, Rombauer Zinfandel.

After set up day was over, we walked over to Gibson’s for dinner and had cocktails while waiting for our table to be ready (we had reservations which you definitely needed!). The bar at Gibson’s is also very popular and was quite crowded.

Dinner at Gibson’s is always great and is one of the best steakhouses I’ve been to, and their wine is pretty great too! We started out with his Chardonnay, Ferrari Carona.

These are my foreign coin dealer friends

The waiter showed us the various available cuts of meat we had to choose from.

We ordered a very nice Penfold’s Cab with dinner.

I had a delicious filet with garlic, and the table shared these delicious brussel sprouts, as well as other various yummy sides.

As usual when there’s a coin show in town, there were several tables of other coin dealers having dinner in the restaurant as well

And then of course, we had some of Gibson’s famous and most delicious giant sized carrot cake and creme brule – we took most of the carrot cake to go and shared the next day!

Here’s the sign on the walkway to the convention center with a big advertisement of the show that I passed on my way back to the hotel.

On THURSDAY I was thrilled to see there was a very long line of public waiting to get into the show!

The morning was quite busy and I had some very good sales, including my 1856 Flying Eagle cent S-3 (Mint State) in PCGS AU55. My customer was absolutely thrilled to add this to his collection, along with a beautifully toned 1955/55 Double Die Lincoln cent in PCGS AU58 he also bought from me.

Some folks stopped by my table to say hi, including Larry Jewett from Coin World who is a super nice guy! We talked about me possibly writing an article or two for Coin World!

John Kent, ILNA President

Robert Julian, Numismatic Art – his hand-drawn coin artwork is truly amazing (you’ll see photos of his booth later in this report)

This is DavidK7 from the forums

And this is Tyler who worked hard and did an amazing job helping Larry put this show together

Dino and his beautiful wife Lisa from Ace of Coins

Wade and Alan from Northern Nevada Coin

Neil and Kenny Snow at Rick Snow’s table

John Schuch

Peter Treglia from Stacks Bowers

Chad Stachowicz – he had some very nice Indian cents that I purchased from him!

Happy hard working folks at PCGS

ANACS

CAC

General pics from around the bourse

That afternoon I finished off the Rombauer Zinfandel with some help from a few other folks! Along with the rest of the Rombauer, a friend gave me this Cline Zinfandel, and Mike “Noodle” also brought me this nice Oregon Bellingar Pinot. That’s Brian from Northeast Numismatics photobombing my wine bottle shot!

Thursday night we headed over to Carlucci’s for dinner.

I had another pre-dinner Hendricks and tonic, and Justin Waddel joined me while we waited for the rest of our party.

While we waited, Justin showed me this stunning toner 1885-O Morgan dollar in PCGS M S67+/CAC he had brought with him!

I had dinner with Justin, James Sego and Curt Mease.

We had this wonderful Carpineto Toscano Reserva and the food was absolutely delicious!

FRIDAY morning when I arrived at the show I took some time to walk around the bourse to take more photos. There was a big display of fascinating items from the Central American shipwreck.

Then I went over to Robert Julian’s table to view his display of amazing handdrawn coin artwork!

For the umteenth time, I had a guy stop by my table to show me a “1943 copper” cent that he inherited from his grandfather. After all the years I’ve been doing this and attending shows, I have never had anyone show me an actual authentic copper 1943, though I have seen in hand several over the years that other dealers were selling or on display at a large show. And I don’t just have them rely on my opinion, I always refer them to another experienced copper dealer whom I respect like Andy at Angel Dees or Rick Snow so they can have a second opinion from someone who deals in copper. However, this experience was a little unusual in that the guy had already taken the coin to PCGS who deemed it counterfeit. He even had the PCGS tag with “counterfeit” on it. After I explained that PCGS sends coins like this to their own expert, I asked him why he doubted them, and he said they could have switched the coin and kept the authentic one and returned a counterfeit coin to him. So after I advised him that this was very unlikely, I took a look at it and in my opinion it was definitely a struck counterfeit (of course the first thing I check is whether was coated and sticks to a magnet, which he had already done), but as I mentioned above, I went ahead and also referred him to Andy to verify that as well.

I know it’s hard for these folks who have a lot of hope of owning a very rare coin like this could have been, only to have their hopes dashed, but it’s also frustrating when they ask for our opinion and we give it, but our telling them we don’t believe their coin is authentic makes them angry or upset or argumentative and they think we don’t know what we’re doing. I remind them that THEY asked for MY OPINION, and that’s what I gave them and they are free to take it or leave it. So this time when I got home, I pulled out this article that I had in my counterfeit file and decided to make copies and carry them with me to shows in the hopes that it may help these people who find that rare “1943 copper” to see some of the diagnostics for themselves and possibly educate them in determining if their coin is counterfeit or authentic.

The show was pretty busy in the morning (as usual, it wasn’t as busy as Thursday), but I again had some very good sales which, of course, sure helped to pay for all the coins I purchased throughout the show!

For you gold lovers, James Sego showed me this stunning scarce 1910 $20 gold piece in PCGS PF67+. It’s the second finest known proof $20 gold piece in the series.

On Friday afternoon Brian (Northeast Numismatics) gave me a bottle of wine they had for dinner the previous night but didn’t finish and since they were flying home that night he couldn’t take it with him. I ended up sharing this and the other two bottles of wine with several other dealers since there was plenty to go around!

Friday night James Sego reserved a private room at Gibson’s and organized a large group of us to have dinner together.

Here are some of the dishes we had

SATURDAY morning was typically slow, with quite a few dealers already packed up and gone. My flight wasn’t until that afternoon so I stayed until about 2pm, but the bourse was a deserted ghosttown by then! However, my good friend Alan Flint (who happens to be the brother of a guy I worked with at Morrison & Foerester for about 15 years back in my litigation paralegal days) stopped by to say hi and made my day!

I had a few small sales, but for the most part the show was pretty much over by noon. Soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport. I was on the same flight as my friend Karl Stephens so we headed out together. Bye-bye Chicago til next time….

Our flight even arrived back in OC EARLY!

My hubby was out of town so I just had Penny to greet me – and she gave me this “why are you bothering me” look!

So I very much enjoyed this show and, by most accounts, it was quite successful – Larry, Coin World, and their team did a great job putting it together, marketing it, and ironing out any kinks that arose. They even already have dates for next year’s show in Rosemont (Sept 30 – Oct 3, 2026), which I plan to attend since as I mentioned, Chicago is a great coin town!

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