Busy week starts with Berlin arrival

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Berlin.

Though the way I feel when I arrive after an overnight trans-Atlantic flight, it might take me a couple of hours and large amounts of coffee to aid me in getting my mental machinery working well enough to truly appreciate this simple fact.

For the week, the capital of Germany becomes the capital of world numismatics at the World Money Fair at the Estrel Hotel in the old eastern section of the city.

No other public numismatic event boasts a larger attendance by the world’s mints and national banks and firms that supply them with blanks, presses and packaging.

It is a wonder to see them all.

It is also a challenge.

Scott Tappa, Lisa Bellavin, Tom Michael and I have so many meetings that the six days we are here seem almost inadequate to fit them all in.

And we are pikers compared to what the world mint executives put themselves through.

I look forward to giving the Coin of the Year Award to the South African Mint and the People’s Choice Award to the Hungarian Mint, but I am getting ahead of myself. That happens Saturday. There is so much to do between now and then.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of coffee here to help me on my way.

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