April 22-25, 2026: The Central States Numismatic Society Show in Schaumburg, IL
April 25th: The Exciting Conclusion
Now somewhat uncomfortably seated at our crowded gate at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, lets recap the just completed CSNS Show through one of our patented series of random observations presented in no particular order:
We really enjoy the Renaissance host hotel here in Schaumburg, except for the restaurant in the AM which always seems to have a long queue of people impatiently waiting to get in even while there are tons of tables available. Something seems amiss there.
Of all the questions people ask me at shows, my favorite one is “Do you have a website?” as that indicates they have no idea who we are, we think they might like it when they do visit it, and we have the potential to gain a new customer.
Other than one major dealer who packed up and left at about midday on Thursday(!), most every other table holder seemed to stay here into Saturday which was undoubtedly due to the fact that the room was active and everyone was doing business throughout.
Twice at this show we sold a coin to a collector whose friend literally sat right next to him and all but insisted they buy it from us. That kind of hard sell is not in our DNA, but we won’t complain if someone else does it on our behalf, and of course we do appreciate the enthusiastic support for our inventory.
I don’t ever really expect to discuss the second law of thermodynamics at the table at a coin show, but there we were on Saturday morning doing exactly that. Hey, this is a highbrow crowd.
Feeling a migraine coming in in the early AM, your author took a double dose of some new medicine my doctor prescribed which worked like a charm, except for the side effect of making me totally loopy for the next hour and 20 minutes. Since I am usually slightly loopy, I’m not sure anyone could tell.
Total number of Gold CAC coins we sold here: All of them.
My lunch on Saturday consisted of a bag of those new chickpea puffs that sound kinda gross but are actually very tasty.
While I did walk the floor here multiple times, I kept getting called back to our table or a different table for some deal or other and as a result never was able to canvas 100% of the room. That’s disappointing, as I might have missed something really good out there.
They made an announcement on Saturday morning thanking dealers for looking out for one another during the show and helping catch a coin thief during “the incident yesterday that you all heard about”. We had not heard anything about that, nor had many of my dealer friends in our part of the room, so we all scrambled to find out what had happened. In short, a couple of guys stole a coin from one dealer and tried to sell it to another dealer who thought something was suspicious and managed to alert the police and stall the guys long enough to catch them. That was excellent work by that second guy.
We ended up here with a total NEWPs count of 37 coins. Still not enough, but there are some fantastic ones in there.
I was surprised and delighted with the number of serious collectors we saw at the show, some familiar, of course, but also many new people I’ve never met before. Including a collector of proof gold who came to the table Saturday afternoon.
It definitely is going to take us a while to dig out from the mountain of paperwork amassed at this show and figure out exactly how much we sold, but I’m confident to say it was one of our best CSNS shows ever (and we have had some extreeeeemely good ones through the years).
Finito
Addendum: Our original plan was to get home from CSNS late Saturday, wake up early and set up at the Devens show on Sunday, but we ended up so delayed and so tired we just couldn’t physically do it. Sorry. So we removed today’s Devens show from the schedule, and our next event will be the EAC show in Charlotte from where are next RR will be written in just a few short days from now.
April 24th: Day 3
We were back in super-productive mode on Friday morning, as your author began the day in the Heritage lot viewing room powering through the extensive US and world offerings.
During which I carefully studied a bunch of interesting coins I’ve never seen before, cursorily viewed the interesting coins that we previously owned years ago, and totally ignored the coins that we definitely were not going to be bidding on. A strategy which allowed me to get through everything efficiently and get back to the bourse floor just before the doors opened to the public at 10 AM.
Where we once again started doing business like crazy, with more good sales in all categories, including with 2 different collectors who had come by earlier in the show, said they might come back and then actually did on Friday to consummate their deals. I like that.
I also like being called by other dealers and told that I need to come to their table ASAP to see something cool, which happened several times during the day. And while these sorts of overtures do not always pan out, they did on this day to the tune of a bunch of cool new purchases.
After which I viewed coins in some of the upcoming lot previews at HA and SB and GC, and also at the table of one of the world dealers here at the show. So whatever is being auctioned anywhere in the near future, I’m pretty sure we are going to be ready.
We also found time for some show and telling at the table, as different collectors stopped by and showed us some recent acquisitions and /or cool collections they brough with them, and we showed off some top secret NEWPs squirreled away in the back case.
After which we purchased a wickedly toned Seated Half, and then sold a high end commem at the table which was our very last deal of the day.
Or so we thought. That turned out not be the case as we actually and unexpectedly sold one more coin in the hotel bar after quittin’ time, something that has happened a few times through the years and is always welcome when it does.
So we were in an excellent mood as we headed out to dinner with some dealer friends to Lou Malnati’s, a Chicago tradition, and one that I had not availed myself of since I was in college here many, many years ago.
Returning to the hotel late-ish and once again falling asleep almost immediately after another long, tiring, but extreeeeemely productive day here in Schaumburg.
And now we are in the home stretch, as we have just one more day to go during which we’ll do as much business as possible, clean up all loose ends, and drop off our last grading and stickering submissions before we head out in the late afternoon.
I was going to say that we’ll write our last RR from this show from the comfort of home on Sunday, but of course we have a local show to go to, so we’ll do the best we can and endeavor to have 2 new Road Reports posted just as soon as we can get to it.
April 23rd: Day 2
Thursday here in Schaumburg started off waaaaay better than expected in two ways:
First, based on a loooong story with which I will not bore the reader, Team CRO packed up and was ready to check out of the show hotel in the AM as I was never able to get a room here for Thursday. Seriously, the Renaissance was 100% booked for that night with the exception of something called the Golden Aster Suite priced at $1700. No thanks. And this despite me checking nearly every day for weeks in advance hoping for a regular room to become available and never having any luck. So we get to the front desk, go through the “How was your stay?” formalities when MaryAnn says “Hey, you don’t have any rooms for tonight, do you?”. To which the answer was (to my great surprise) yes, no problem, allowing us to go straight back to our previous room, dump our bags again and begin the day without any extra schlepping whatsoever.
Second, we walked down to the show rejuvenated to discover a customer waiting for us at our table, who saw a coin he liked yesterday, apparently thought about it all night and returned to buy it first thing. Allowing us to write our first invoice within about 30 seconds of arriving.
So our day certainly began on a high note which can, in our experience, indicate good things to follow.
Spoiler alert: It totally did, as the show was crowded and active pretty much all day, we sold coins in all categories, new and old, from the cool and not-that-expensive to the downright highfalutin.
In and around which your author scoured the bourse floor finding some cool coins scattered about, and snapping up a couple more interesting ones that walked up to the table, but honestly not as many as I’d hoped as our show NEWPs stack is just 23 coins tall at the time of this writing. Of course there are still a couple of days to go, so that number is very likely to grow as it usually does.
With our last deal of the day on Thursday the sale of a fancy colonial coin which we traded for gold bullion, then sold the gold straight away. So keep in mind that trading gold (or most any kinds of coins) for items in our inventory is always an option if you are so inclined.
After which it was time to pack up and zip off to Park Ridge, IL for dinner with our relatives before getting back here pretty late, catching the tail end of the NFL draft coverage and then peacefully falling asleep here at the show hotel and not at the Embassy Suites up the road per our lousy original plan.
Meaning that we do not have to drag our bags back here in the morning, so we should again be well-rested and ready for action on Friday. So we can then blog about everything that happens right here in this space in just 24 hours from now.
EOM
April 22nd: Day 1
As I was writing yesterday’s prologue I could not have known that just 10 minutes later I would feel the same sense of dread I had experienced while leaving the June 2016 Long Beach show. Readers may remember that as the famous “Super Steve” episode where I left my phone in the cab on the way to LBO, panicked, borrowed the JetBlue phone to call the driver and somewhat miraculously got it back in time to make my flight.
This time I was sitting comfortably on my flight during boarding when I suddenly realized I again did not have my phone, panicked, blasted like a salmon going upstream through the queue of people still trying to get on and eventually found said phone at the ticket counter where some anonymous Good Samaritan had left it.
Which was of course a significant relief, and IMO a sign that this was going to be an excellent show here in Schaumburg.
Where we arrived at about 7:30 AM, checked into our room, headed down to breakfast and then made our way straight to the show for the 9 AM start of PNG Day. Kind of an early set up period during which we could do some business with dealers and serious collector attendees.
And while we thought there would be plenty of activity, we did not expect the epic onslaught which started right away and continued on until the late afternoon. During which we sold a veritable ton of coins to collectors and dealers alike, from a few hundred dollars to the mid 5-figures, US and world, soup to nuts, including coins which had been on the site for a while, and new items unleashed here. With several more big ones still “in play”.
We also managed to buy a bunch of cool coins from dealers around the room, and from collectors at the table, hand in a bunch of grading and generally be super productive from start to finish.
So by 6 PM we were wiped out from the non-stop activity, and from the fact that we had woken up at 2:40 AM to catch that first flight from Boston to get here. Wow, that’s a long day.
Leaving us just enough energy to make it to dinner with some collector and dealer friends before getting back to the hotel and immediately collapsing in a heap.
The good news is we will be better rested on Thursday and ready for John Q. Public who we expect to arrive in force here at 10 AM.
With whatever happens to be described here in just about 24 hours from now.
Prologue:
Greetings numismatist and welcome to our first RR from the 2026 CSNS show being penned from my gate at beautiful Logan Airport in Boston, MA.
And this is a great time to be here, especially if you like hoards of screaming teenagers, since it is of course school vacation week in Massachusetts. Meaning that every ticket counter, security line, restaurant, kiosk, bathroom and water fountain is utterly jam-packed with poorly chaperoned school kids heading somewhere in matching T-shirts.
Apparently not to Chicago, though, since it is extremely calm here at our gate and thus suitable for writing a blog in which I will say that we are extremely excited for this show at one of our favorite venues on the circuit.
Starting today with PNG Day where CRO will be at our usual table #703 buying, selling, trading, grading and of course schmoozing like crazy, all day.
So if you are in the area we hope you’ll stop by see and us. But if you can’t make it, you can still follow along with all of the action as described right here each and every morning of the show.
