Third time’s the charm?

After the first Great American Coin & Collectible (GACC) show in Tampa underwhelmed and round 2 in Ft. Lauderdale never left the runway, the industry arrived in Rosemont with eyebrows raised and arms crossed. But GACC’s Chicago-area bid had tailwinds: the Long Beach-shaped hole in the fall calendar, PCGS doing on-site grading, a proven venue minutes from O’Hare, and metals at full boil drawing fresh eyes to the hobby.

We came in hopeful. We left impressed.

If Winter FUN is Opening Day and Long Beach is (was!) our home stadium, the annual ANA’s World’s Fair of Money is the Super Bowl of Coins: The longest, biggest, most everything-est show on the calendar. Unlike the typical Tue–Fri sprint, ANA is a full-on marathon: fly in Sunday, out Saturday.

This year’s venue? Oklahoma City - a brand-new city for the ANA rotation that sparked plenty of dealer grumbling about flight connections and attendance unknowns. Verdict after six days on the ground: OKC delivered, in a big way. Great venue, excellent hotel, engaged collectors, serious coins.

There we were, minding our sweet numismatic business at a local coin show recently when a gentleman walked up to our table and handed Paul this very odd-looking coin.

"What...on earth...is this?" they asked each other.

Noah was pricing up some coins on his laptop and half-listening to the conversation.

Paul wondered aloud: "It looks almost like a $5 Liberty struck on...is that a Mexican 8 Reales? But it doesn't say Liberty on her headband...it says something else..."

Noah perked up.

"And on the reverse...that doesn't look like it says United States of America, it says 'PURE CALIFORNIA'..."

Record skip

Sometimes the best coin show adventures begin with a simple question: "Have you heard good things about this show?"

The PAN Spring Coin show bills itself as "the largest coin show in the Northeastern United States" and while that's quite a claim, we'd been hearing whispers from multiple sources that PAN was indeed something special – a hidden gem that drew serious dealers and collectors from across the country despite being tucked away in a Pittsburgh suburb.

For Rarity7, this represented a bit of an experiment. We typically stick to the familiar circuit of shows on our own coast or the major national events that justify a transcontinental schlep. But sometimes you have to venture into uncharted numismatic territory...

Another coin show, another opportunity to recount the numismatic adventures that unfold when you pack several hundred coin dealers into a convention center with millions of dollars worth of history in small metal discs.

The National Money Show is one of the ANA's premier events, typically smaller than the summer World's Fair of Money but still a draw for serious collectors and dealers from across the country. With Long Beach Expo ending its run earlier this year (a moment of silence, please), shows like this have become even more important to the coin community's calendar.

Hello, World! Thus begins the blogging, show reporting, and numismatic minutiae from the trenches of Rarity7.

Perhaps I could have chosen a more national-level show than Long Beach for our premier report, but it lined up as such that this was the show where I actually took detailed notes, photos, and tuned my brain for reporting. I suppose it’s also fitting in some mildly poetic way that Long Beach was the first major show I did back in 2021 after my short 30-year break from numismatics.