DATELINE – ORLANDO, FLA. – Members of the Raleigh Coin Club invade F.U.N! Well sort of. Five members of the Club made the long trek down I-95 to Florida and The Florida United Numismatists Annual Convention in Orlando Saturday January 10^th. Steve Pladna, James Hearn, and Sam Kirby in one vehicle and Dave Provost and I in another started south early Friday morning after last month’s meeting. Dave and I arrived at the Hampton Inn about 30 or 40 minutes outside of Orlando about 11 ½ hours later following a relatively uneventful trip. We did make one unexpected detour stopping for lunch in Savannah and stretching our legs for a couple of hours at The Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum. It broke the trip up nicely and gave me a chance to purchase several neat medals before we ever got to the show.

After a good night’s rest we were up and off to the show. Since neither of us had been to a F.U.N. Show before we were very eager. The bourse did not open to ten but we planned to arrive early in order to attend a meeting of The Society for U.S. Commemorative Coins (SUSCC). Dave had warned me that the Orange County Convention Center was huge but I was not expecting the sprawling mega-building we were circling heading to the parking lot. I’m not totally sure but I think it is about the size of downtown Apex! We parked and began the long hike to the exposition hall and meeting rooms occupied by the F.U.N Show. There were many other activities going on at the convention center that weekend, a couple of which dwarfed the F.U.N. show in size. We finally made to the meeting room for the SUSCC meeting – man am I out of shape! At the meeting we were treated to a preview of PCGS’ seminar on how they grade coins. It was quite interesting. They discussed a variety of topics but the two most interesting were. first the factors that tip the scale one way or the other on borderline coins. The second was the ingenious ways in which the "coin doctors" attempt to enhance the appearance and grades of coins. I learned new uses for the automotive body filler and Turtle Wax collecting dust in my garage.

It was now time to hit the bourse. We walked through the double doors and in an instant I realized we weren’t going to finish in a day. Fortunately the night before we used the map from Numismatic News to plot a course to all our favorite dealers so we did this first. Our first stop was Dave Akers’ table to apologize on behalf of the club over the misunderstanding concerning the auction catalogs. He didn’t have a clue who the Raleigh Coin Club was but he did remember Jack. All is well and we will be getting the next two catalogs and Mr. Akers did send us the prices realized for the first session. After this we agreed to meet at noon for lunch and split up each pursuing his own interests while keeping the other’s want lists in mind in case we came across something of interest for them.

Allow me to tell just one quick bourse floor story of a find. Dave had told me before the show that if I saw any Norse-American Medals to let him know because his goal was to hopefully find a good assortment to choose from and bring a thick and thin variety home for his collection. Well going from showcase to showcase I came to one that had Norse-American Medals stacked in rows. The dealer politely asked if he could help me and realizing it was close to lunchtime I said yes. "What time it is it?" He replied it was quarter after twelve. Oh no I was late for our lunch meeting, but it was the only time I knew exactly where Dave was. I told the dealer I would be right back as I rushed off. I could not help but notice the puzzled look on his face. I found the guys at the meeting place and proceeded to tell Dave I had found a dealer that had at least 50 Norse medals. He was skeptical and gave me a look like I was a little crazy. Come to think of it, it was just like the one the dealer gave me. Anyway I showed Dave the dealer’s offerings and I was a little off he had 51. Fifty after Dave bought one and both realized I was not really crazy.

My personal highlight of the show came while I was talking with Douglas Winter. Douglas is a branch mint gold expert who has written books on each of the branch mint’s coinage. If you will recall he donated a copy of his latest book on Dahlonega Gold to the Club at the ANA – New York Convention last summer. He stopped me as I was walking down the isle and asked me to stop as his table he had something to show me. I figured he had a nice Charlotte piece for me to look at but was in for a surprise. You can’t imagine my surprise when he pulled out the finial draft copy of his new book on Charlotte Branch Mint Gold ready to go to the publisher and asked to look over it and let him know what I thought. It is going to be great and I can’t wait to get a copy.

Well I think we all ran out of gas long before we ran out of time. I saw a lot and I know I missed a great lot also. Toward the end the table numbers were really beginning to feel like the mile-markers one encounters along the interstate highways. Only ten more miles I mean tables to the next exit I mean isle and only 5 more exits I mean isles to we get home I mean finish. You get the idea. The show was great, there were several meetings and events off of the bourse I would have liked to have attended, and I would have loved to have spent more time looking through the dealer’s stock. I can’t help but feel I missed the one great find of the show because I was rushing to see it all. I think the cost of an extra day would have been money well spent and have increased the enjoyment level greatly. I can’t wait till next year, I think I will start getting up a list of names for 1999 starting at this month’s meeting.

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