Road Report

January 18th: Day 6

Now comfortably seated on my couch let’s summarize our Sunday at the NYINC show starting right now:

We got up early and packed up our room like crazy, then checked with the front desk to see if we could theoretically extend our stay one night since the weather was forecast to deteriorate late in the afternoon. They said yes, and told us we could get a late checkout at 1 giving us time to decide. That was nice.

Then we zipped out for a goodbye breakfast with our kids over by Bryant Park.

Then came back and while MaryAnn went to open up our table, I hung around on the phone with the airline figuring out our options and ended up moving the flight up about an hour and a half. Which would have no impact on our show plans since we had some buffer built in, but might let us miss the worst of the snow.

Then I went to SB to pick up our auction lot from the Saturday evening session, and then dropped that off directly to the grading service since it was raw(!).

Getting back just in time to work two deals for some cool colonials with another dealer.

Then I bought a neat Latin American coin from a British dealer who was apparently sufficiently excited by this transaction to show me photos of his vacation to India. Admittedly, they were cool photos.

With collectors of the mostly budget variety wandering around the bourse floor throughout, including some super knowledgeable people, and one guy who asked if he could show me some coins which he then produced in a series of aspirin bottles stashed in every single pocket of his raincoat and blazer. Unfortunately, all of them turned out to be literally pocket change, so the aspirin bottles were probably not necessary.

Then we collected some last late checks and then said our goodbyes to our dealer friends, including our new table neighbors from Australia, who showed us they had been gifted a can of Fosters Lager by another dealer. As cliches go, that’s sort of the equivalent of giving an American a cowboy hat, but I’m sure the intention was good.

And while this was happening, the dealer across the aisle was busily selling raw world coins to a bunch of collectors who finally had to be rousted by security since the show was officially over.

Including ours. And it turned out to be really good for us, with strong sales, excellent, interesting and at times unexpected buying, lots of good schmoozing, and with the potential for deals that might yet come from all of this.

So of course we signed up for next year, not that that was in any doubt whatsoever, as this is one of our favorite events on the circuit.

Then we slogged to the airport nervously watching freezing rain coming down sideways, sat through a few flight delays, took the extra half hour for them to de-ice the plane (during which we got no TV reception and could not watch the Patriots-Texans game), enjoyed a super bumpy ride in near zero visibility, landed late, kissed the tarmac, careened home in an Uber on icy roads and finally made it back here after what had been by then an almost continuous 2 weeks on the road.

Which I will now celebrate with an early Monday morning dentist appointment, and then some extremely well earned R&R before we dive back into action on Tuesday.

But of course we are reachable by phone or email now, as always, if anyone wants to talk coins or do business (except when I am in that dental chair).

Finito

January 17th: Day 5

Remember waaaaay back in yesterday’s blog when I mentioned that I expected Saturday to be jam-packed from start to finish? Well that turned out to be prescient based on what happened here:

It was crowded from the 10 AM opening until late in the afternoon.

We sold a cool 5-figure colonial to someone I did not expect to see here, and who I would not have expected to be a candidate for this coin even if he was here.

A long-time customer who came to the show on Friday emailed to say he was coming back Saturday to buy an early US type coin, and then actually did so. For those keeping score at home, we have now sold 3 of the 4 US coins we were allowed to have on display here (i.e. the ones dated before 1816) illustrating once again that while this is a world show, there is considerable demand for US coins here and we are very pleased to be one of the few dealers who offer them.

Another long time customer came to the show and brought a box of nice US coins to sell, of which we ended up buying 5 totally EB ready type coins.

A world dealer bought some choice Latin American silver from us. I’m not that surprised, since I think we had about the most original and eye apealing examples in the room.

We sold our second $20 gold piece at this show.

Another long time customer came by and extremely thoughtfully brought us two jelly doughnuts from the Italian bakery nearby based on reading last week’s RR in which I mentioned that one day I only had 6 grapes for lunch. The moral of this story is that good things come to those who whine. And then we bought 4 coins from him, including an absolutely wicked early dollar we sold him in 2013 with CRO written all over it.

We bought our second extremely original and eye appealing early quarter of the day from a dealer friend who brought a box of coins to show us.

At one time there were 3 deals happening simultaneously at the table with considerable kibitzing, causing one customer to mention that “we were having too much fun here”. I agree with that statement.

We had an in depth discussion about colonials with a serious collector-brother team that we have now run into at various shows throughout New England. The fact that we also managed to discuss Albania with them was just a bonus.

We picked up our auction lots from both Heritage and Stack’s-Bowers, dropped off all our grading, made a last second consignment to auction and thus managed to completely clean up every single loose end here.

And then it was time to head out, so we zipped across the street for dinner where we unexpectedly ran into members of the New York Numismatic Club in the bar. Hey, it’s a small world.

So, in total, I’d call that a full and productive day, and we still have one more to go here as we will be back on the bourse floor until the show closes at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon. I would fully expect all other booths to be full staffed too, since they don’t fool around here and any table that is vacated prior to that time will revert to NYINC management for re-assignment. I like that.

With whatever happens to be described right here on Monday AM right after my dentist appointment, unless we get stuck here in bad weather which, at this point, seems like a distinct possibility.

EOM

January 16th: Day 4

The Most interesting Things That Happened on Friday

We were too tired to drag ourselves to the gym.

We had breakfast at the bakery next door, but I really struggled with the set up there where you join the queue of people waiting to order far enough away from the cases that you cannot see the day’s offering. And then the second you get close enough to look around they ask for your order, forcing you to yell out something immediately lest you get relegated to the end of the line. I’m used to working in a high pressure environment where you need to make quick decisions, but this is really pushing it.

We sold a colonial coin to an extremely enthusiastic customer right off the bat. As a dealer, I find this sort of enthusiasm infectious, and is one of the things I like most about this business.

A long time customer friend showed us what has to be an impossible to replicate denomination set of 1756-G J Guatemala Klippes:

Amazing that all of those – especially the ½ Real – had mostly full dates.

I bought a wicked Wildman coin.

A whole bunch of customers asked to see our new Volcano Peso, which is, as far as I can tell, the only one in the entire room.

I walked around the room and looked at several highly graded certified coins in our areas of primary interest, but under close scrutiny all of them (not just some – all) had either light graffiti or a subtle repair about which I have two comments:

1. I personally find that extremely disappointing, and
2. Be careful out there

We showed our box of US coins of the sort that cannot be displayed at this show to multiple customers, and sold a bunch of them.

There are a couple of other coins on the floor here that I really like, and would love to buy, but they were priced at least 2x more than I could justify.

My favorite non-CRO item in the room on this day was an absolutely superb 17th century British medal with a charming Argentinian-style sunface design that I have never seen before. I’d have snapped it up as an impulse item, but unfortunately for us it’s a rare piece probably better suited for a specialist. Still thinking about it though.

The dealer next to us is from Australia, is set up here for the first time, and mentioned to me that he had read the Road Report prior to coming. Which is of course the kind of global reach we are seeking, and a reminder to us to include more topics of Australasian interest.

We had dinner at Calle Dao, the Cuban Chinese place on 39th which I would highly recommend to anyone and frequently do.

And now we’ll be ready for Saturday here at the show which I expect to be absolutely jam-packed from start to finish.

January 15th: Day 3

Let the record reflect that the 2026 NYINC show would begin on Thursday morning at precisely 8 AM.

It would not begin at 7:59. I know this, because we got off the elevator at the show level at 7:59 and were told by security that that floor was not open until 8, and to get back on the elevator and go to any random floor for one additional minute. Which, as rule followers, MaryAnn and I did, while the other dealer riding with us said screw it, I am getting off here, and no one can stop me.

But eventually we all were allowed in, and we all headed to our various tables for the set up period which would continue on for a full 4 hours during which there was plenty of activity among the booth holders, including us. We bought half a dozen cool world coins, and sold enough US coins to further decimate our online inventory which was already largely wiped out last week. Seriously, I can’t recall a time when our US inventory on the site was this depleted, but know that we are working hard to replenish it here, in the FUN auctions, from collectors and pretty much anywhere a person could obtain cool coins.

Anyway, this continued on until noon when the first of the Professional Previewers entered (those that paid the $150 fee for early access to the bourse) and a new wave of activity began. Allowing us to sell US coins to US customers, French coins to Chinese buyers, Mexican coins to an Italian dealer and pretty much every other combination one could imagine. Including some of the things we just bought at FUN specifically to offer here. So that worked out well.

Also working out well: Our buying on the bourse floor, including some neat raw coins that will eventually make it to the website, probably months from now. Maybe months and months.

We also had an unexpectedly good thing happen, when a PCGS-graded world coin we bought at FUN did not work in the PCGS coin look up, which seemed like it was about to be a project that would take weeks to resolve, suddenly got fixed in a matter of minutes by their customer service people without requiring me to ship it to California or go through some other inconvenient machinations as I have had to do at times in the past. I cannot tell you how much of a relief that was.

After which your author had a late lunch from the bakery next door just before I was about to faint from hunger, allowing us to continue buying and selling until the crowd seriously thinned out late in the afternoon.

At which time we packed up and headed to dinner with some old and new collector friends at a highly recommended Italian place up the street (far up the street) which we walked to on a night that was way, way colder than yesterday. Eventually getting back at a reasonable hour and then watching the FUN US auction in which we had a bunch of bids.

So by the time that ended, it had been a long, tiring, entertaining and productive day here in NYC. And with the general public coming in tomorrow, we expect everything to ramp up here even more.

And if it does, or even if it doesn’t, we’ll write all about all of it in our next installment of the RR.

Until then, then –

January 14th: Day 2

It was another early start on Wednesday as we hit the hotel gym, had breakfast at the Danish Bakery and then re-reviewed the lots of highest interest in the upcoming world auctions.

Then it was time to transition to US coin mode as we talked to a few customers on the phone, sold a cool coin on the website, bought a 4-coin deal from another customer in Nevada, and then met up with a couple of  collectors in the lobby here to talk coins for a while.

Eventually leaving for a late lunch in the hotel lobby where I had an absolutely fantastic Caesar salad (literally one of the best I have ever had), at a price that would make a person (like your author, for example), never order one again. It really was good though.

After which I headed back to my room for the 3 PM local time start of the Heritage FUN US auction Platinum Night (er, Platinum Afternoon).

Which I then watched for the next 4 hours, bidding intermittently, struggling with my wifi connection (not surprising in a city of tall signal-squelching buildings) and generally having kind of a tough time with it.

Which continued right up through dinner when we headed out to Thursday Kitchen in the East Village which might have been the best restaurant I have ever been to in my entire life – or at least a close second to the one in Bologna, Italy that was owned by my then-business partner’s uncle who would close the place to paying customers and then just go in the kitchen and make us something unbelievable, usually with truffles in it. As an aside, the bar here at the show hotel gives you truffle popcorn with your drink, so obviously they are not fooling around either.

Anyway, after dinner I headed back to the bar, sat with some dealer friends, had some of that truffle popcorn and eventually called it a night so I could catch the end of the HA session in which we snagged a few cool coins.

Eventually turning is so we could be as rested and ready as possible for the 8 AM start of dealer set up on Thursday, and a full, action packed day on the bourse floor.

Which we will then write all about, right here, first thing on Friday AM.

January 13th: Day 1

Team CRO took an early flight to NYC on Tuesday, schlepped miles through JFK to the cab stand (honestly, it is a ridiculous distance), zoomed into midtown with a typical amount of crazy driving, and arrived at the show hotel on 48th and Lex, nauseous, around noon.

Allowing us to spend the day lot viewing, delivering coins, obtaining our show badges (including mine with what I think is an image of me taken while I was sound asleep), schmoozing up a storm with collectors who have arrived here from all over the globe, having some of that delicious tomato bisque in the lobby restaurant and again enjoying the giant landscape on the wall of our hotel room:

Actually all the rooms here have something like that, and yes, it is unbelievably elegant.

Also elegant: The attire of most attendees here, as this show has a sophisticated cosmopolitan air which translates to velvet blazers (not on me, of course), and men wearing handsome scarves indoors (yes, I did bring a few).

Anyway, after all the coin stuff, your author got to test out the hotel bar (one of my favorite in the whole city) at around 5, before heading to dinner at some Thai place on 46th. Getting back late and running into a collector in the lobby and chatting it up there until even later in the evening.

Wednesday promises more lot viewing here, more collector interactions in the hotel and plenty of time spent on the US auctions from the FUN show which are of course all running this week forcing us to multi-task like crazy. But it is a good kind of crazy.

And then blog all about all of it right here on Thursday AM.

Prologue:

After an extreeeeemely long hiatus of ~48 hours since our last event, Team CRO is fully recharged, unbelievably organized and totally ready for the next one in New York City. Which also means that we have already reformulated our inventory in accordance with the well established rules here:

Offerings at the New York International Numismatic Convention emphasize and are restricted to foreign and ancient numismatic items, United States material after 1815 may not be displayed. Antiquities: objects, statuary, vases, lamps and items of similar nature may be neither displayed nor offered for sale at the NYINC.

It is important to note, however, that while we can’t display US material dated 1816 and later, we will have a bunch of it with us and available if anyone is interested. So if that describes you, just let us know.

We’ll be here all week, ready to buy, sell, trade and of course schmooze, first in the hotel lobby and common areas, and then starting on Thursday with dealer set up at our deluxe table #808 in the Grand Ballroom (and believe me, it is grand).

So if you are in the area, we sure hope you’ll stop buy and see us.