The FUN Coin Show In Florida Was Oodles Of... (Yes...) FUN!

The Florida United Numismatists 64th annual coin show, held in Orlando, kicked off the 2019 marketplace with a bang, and we at CDN Publishing were there. I drove over from my Central Florida office and was joined by Publisher John Feigenbaum, Editor Patrick Ian Perez, and Operations Manager Billie Blattel. We arrived Wednesday morning. By later that afternoon the flood of new subscription requests and renewals came in, and we had already sold dozens of individual issues of the new January 2019 Monthly Greysheet by nightfall.

John, Patrick, and I split up across the bourse floor gathering interviews and covering stories while Billie masterfully held down the fort back at Booth 232 (temporarily serving as the official CDN Publishing South). I spent Thursday logging in miles talking with various coin dealers and numismatic luminaries to gather content for future CDN podcasts. Friday morning, I attended a meeting by the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA), where we discussed many of the details surrounding the Supreme Court’s recent and controversial case known as the Wayfair decision — a tax regulation that vastly and could quite negatively impact countless coin dealers.

After several more interviews, I attended a colorful 90-minute conference with numismatic experts Scott Travers (at lectern in above photo) and Maurice Rosen (left) as well as hedge fund manager and precious metals investor James Passin (center). I scurried back to the CDN booth afterward, but I didn’t light there long. I was back on the bourse gathering yet more interviews and getting the scoop on pricing feedback from dealers.

I’m writing this on Friday evening as we’re all heading back to our homes, but I must say this bourse floor was buzzing. Nobody from FUN has yet released any firm attendance figures (through today) as the show is still ongoing and there’s still plenty of business to conduct. But the folks I talked with seemed very happy with the preliminary numbers they’ve recorded from door entries so far. And the dealers? Well, let’s just say there were a lot of smiles.

What’s going on? Is it the rising bullion prices, which has seen gold climb by some $50 over the past month or so to over $1,280? Was it the early results coming in from the Heritage Auction, where the finest-known 1885 Trade dollar, an ex. Eliasberg specimen graded PF66 by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation pulled in nearly $4 million? Or is it the overall feeling that 2019 is going to be a good year for the coin industry?

Who knows?

But the FUN show is always the first big show of the year — a bellwether for the industry. And this coin show was good for us at CDN Publishing and was exciting for me to attend as a numismatist. I’m looking forward to what 2019 will bring our hobby!