The coin market is focused this week on activity in New Orleans, Louisiana – “The Big Easy” – for the ANA’s National Money Show May 9-11. This major city is a vacation destination and the ANA hopes to cash in on it with strong attendance. This may come to pass, as several attendees at the Central States Convention two weeks ago mentioned that they are going to New Orleans partly for the fun, and some are taking their families. The National Money Show is traditionally a much smaller event than the ANA’s granddaddy event in August – The World’s Fair of Money. And, especially coming so close on the heels of the Central States Convention in Chicago, some dealers are electing to stay home, as they’ve just looked through inventories of most of the other regular national show dealers. Some continued the road trip attending the Early American Copper convention and sale held on May 4 in Newark, Ohio. The auction brought in $366,412 with a top lot of $24,750 for a 1793 AMERICA Chain Cent, S-3 catalogued as Fine 12. As this sellers’ market continues to persist, buyers must maintain their vigilance in scouring any and all bourse floors for problem-free rare coins to fulfill the needs of their customers.

     The Stack’s Bowers sale this week in New Orleans will help fulfill that need for many buyers. The company is still riding high from its landmark January sale in which the SP66 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar, was sold for a record $10 million price level. While precious metals have recovered some of the ground they lost three weeks ago, they are less favored by investors than are stocks at this time, as equities hit a new record high last week with the Dow tip-toeing over the 15,000 mark for the first time. There’s also a tug-of-war going on with precious metals, as tensions rise in the Middle-East, causing the price for crude oil to fatten along with Gold, while weak economic data from China is a drag on the market.

     A couple new scams are being tried at coin shops – bad checks from a so-called dealer who then immediately sells purchased bullion to another shop for cash, and phony IDs from sellers. The risks from the first are obvious, and sellers using phony IDs are hiding something – perhaps stolen goods. Know your customers. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which is intended to collect sales tax from online purchases, advanced this week from the U. S. Senate by more than a 2-1 margin of 69 to 27. Increased opposition is expected in the House of Representatives. The bill is intended to increase revenues for states and remove the unfair advantage that internet retailers hold over local brick and mortar stores. Opposition contends that this measure unfairly burdens small businesses with an added level of administration and costs. Coin and bullion dealers could have an additional obstacle to contend with in that some states exempt such sales from sales tax and others do not, further complicating business for many dealers.

Reprinted from Issue No. 19   May 10, 2013 of the Coin Dealer Newsletter - the Greysheet
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