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Sullivan Numismatics Table at the ANA World's Fair of Money 2024.

The ANA World’s Fair of Money 2024, held in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois August 6-10th, was a well attended even, bustling with both dealers and collectors. There were many large coin exhibits of coins and related money items, various coin club events, grading services taking submissions, and world mints in attendance. The major coin shows are where “it all happens” in the coin collecting world, and are a must-attend event when one rolls into collectors’ region of the country.

We had a great show, and sales were excellent—in fact, it was one of the busiest ANA shows for sales in recent memory, with coins from $100 to thousands of dollars selling to both dealers and collectors. Everyone we talked to had a “good show”, and we didn’t hear a single negative bad show report from dealers or collectors. Although we aren’t always able to because of travel arrangements, this show we stayed all the way through Saturday afternoon, which was nice, as a number of collectors and dealers were able to make it over to our table, who likely would not have had time to during the busy, earlier days of the show.

It was nice to see many of our regular customers, as well as meet or reacquaint with past customers. Many people brought by coins as “is this genuine”, our “what’s this error worth?” Perhaps the most often asked question is “Is my 1982-D Lincoln cent the rare transitional copper cent?” (100% of the 1982-D cents we’ve ever been shown were not the transitional error!) CONECA (the largest error coin club, with over 1,000 members), was in attendance with a club table, and lots of error folks to answer questions for people and sign up new members. If you are not a CONECA member, consider joining the club as it’s well worth the minor membership cost.

The most popular mint error at the show was the 1964 Kennedy half double-struck with brockage reverse (it always gets a lot of attention at the last few shows we have brought it to—major striking errors are always popular.) Additionally, the Franklin half on dime double-denomination is a popular coin with a lot of “wow, I’ve never seen one of those before” coming from viewers (it’s the first one we’ve had in stock as well!)

Although not overly related to the coin show, it was interesting to notice that virtually all our inventory at coin shows nowadays is certifed. This has actually been true for a while now, and one of the primary reasons is simply the demand from customers. Certified mint errors are now to a large extent the “norm” with any valuable error coin. Error coins under a certain value of course become cost prohibitive to certify, but errors over $50-$100 range tend to be certified. The ease of “understanding” an error coin that had been already described, graded, and authenticated makes error coin collecting easier and perhaps more enjoyable to collect. When an uncertified coin has to be authenticated, interpreted as to grade and error type by the buyer, it becomes much harder for all but the expert to collect more valuable error coins with confidence—after all, is it worth risking the purchase of a $1,000 uncertified error when it may be a counterfeit, altered, or perhaps misattributed? Graded mint errors are a tremendous benefit to the error coin hobby, and speaking from experience, the descriptions, grade, and the tremendous benefit of an authenticity guarantee are worth buying any of the more valuable error coins certified.

Our next coin show will be the Collectibles Expo in Tampa, Florida, which is being held September 11-14th. If you are able to make it, we look forward to seeing you there.