I was hungry. The market for rare coins was hungrier last night. The Queller family collection featuring an 1804 dollar attracted a crowd. Hundreds packed the auction room at the convention center in Rosemont, Ill.

Bob Merrill opened the Heritage sale by introducing a formally attired Leo Frese as auctioneer just past 6:30 p.m.

I was hungry because I had had no supper. Bob Van Ryzin and I had gone directly from the bourse floor to the auction room. I was talking to as many people for CoinChatRadio.com as possible. Ironically, many of them were eating.

The sense of anticipation was strong. Dave Queller’s son, Howard, said it was like waiting for a wedding. That was a good way to put it. When the bride, the 1804 dollar, became the center of attention it brought $3,737,500. That includes the 15% buyer’s fee. It was sold to an Internet buyer who had never seen it.

After the sale, instead of rushing the buyer, which they couldn’t do since he wasn’t there, many individuals approached David Queller to ask him to autograph their auction catalogs, which he graciously did.

He told me afterwards that his knees were still shaking. That sounds like a father of the bride, too.

Then it was over. The market was fed. I got fed at 9 p.m.

I am going to regret writing this. I received an e-mail yesterday. I laughed out loud when I saw it. I share it with you. Look at the upper right portion of the note.


What do you think?

It kind of hurts, too. Doesn’t it?

Collectors are nothing if not clever. They also appreciate a good joke. This one was too good not to share, but I open a door that perhaps I should leave closed.

I do not want to receive the best jokes my readers are aware of. I am not anti-reader. I am not anti-joke, but one of the problems with online communications is the urge to share humor. There is simply too much of it. I do not have time to read it all or take a look at it.

Don’t take this blog as an encouragement to send me additional humorous items. Send me the news as always.

The United States may be in a recession. There seems to be something close to an economic consensus on this point, but what a peculiar one it seems to be when sitting in my chair.

Everybody sees life from his own perspective and what I am seeing strikes me as odd.

I had to go to the dentist yesterday. Two and a half hours in the chair is no fun, but it is sometimes necessary. On my way back to the office, I heard an advertisement on my car radio from an area employer urging people to apply for jobs there.

This ad by itself would probably signify nothing, but it occurred during a period when I am also seeing an ad on a local TV station where another company is seeking qualified employees.

I don’t remember any recession where advertisements were airing looking for workers.

Now I am old enough to have seen enough downturns to know that they all have characteristics in common, but they also have their own unique stupidities that either caused them or contributed to them, but I don’t want to write about subprime loans.

Perhaps the underlying economy is redefining itself. Fewer financial workers in Manhattan, more jobs in central and northeast Wisconsin. We will see.

As evidence of the downturn, there seem to be fewer people eating at the Crystal Cafe during my lunch hour. People are there in large enough numbers when Social Security payments have made it to the local bank, but as the month goes on, I am seeing less of the work lunch crowd.

I also carefully look at my change. Times of economic stress tend to flush out older coins and notes. I have begun to see that. Wednesday I had pie for dessert, so my change from my $9.97 tab was just three cents. All three were the 95-percent copper alloy that hasn’t been produced since 1982.

The week before I got some older $1 Federal Reserve Notes. One was a Series 1981. Whoa, that surprised me. Others were Series 1995, so I quickly scanned them to see if they were Web notes.

They weren't. Darn.

Overall, I can’t say that there is no recession, only that it has peculiar ramifications.

What are you seeing in your area?