An other cent rock festival?

Will the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., turn into a numismatic rock festival this morning as the one in Lincoln, Ind., did in May?

The third Lincoln cent design is scheduled to arrive officially at 10 a.m. midwifed by Mint Director Ed Moy and local dignitaries U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Mayor Tim Davlin.

Thousands queued up to get the second design in Indiana and completely ignored the formal ceremony. Many went through the line two and three times to get more cents.

I had an e-mail from a former enthusiast, who attended the Lincoln City ceremony early. This time he didn’t have a good thing to say. He wasn’t going to the third event at all.

Perhaps his illusion of vast fortune beckoning was shattered in Indiana. I can’t know for sure, but nothing seems angrier than a hobbyist who decides he has been deprived of speculative profit when it seems like others are getting it.

Taking the pressure off the cent release in Illinois are two other sales locations set up in Washington, D.C., one hour earlier (because of the time difference).

Collectors will be able to buy rolls of Lincoln cents for face value at Union Station and at the Mint’s headquarters building from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. today. Next month the cents will be available on Capitol Hill at the Rayburn House Offfice Building.

Collectors who do not want to drive, can order two-roll sets online, but they will of course have to pay $8.95 each plus a handling charge of $4.95.

So is the bloom off the numismatic rose? we will soon see.