Let the FUN begin

Yesterday was my travel day to the Florida United Numismatists convention. It went smoothly for me. The only glitch, and it was a small one, was that my carry-on bag was sent through the x-ray machine twice. As I wrote yesterday, I figured I might have a small problem with the rolls, but I left the five cent rolls in the bag anyway. The line of people was so short and the available time was so long that I just figured I would see what would happen. I had taken the precaution of dispersing them, so they weren't together in whatever image the TSA agent might see. And, of course, I was ready to open the bag if asked.

My colleague, Bob Van Ryzin left through a different airport. He had a few rolls also and he experienced three passes through the x-ray machine and he was finally asked to open his bag.

Once I arrived at FUN I had an interesting conversation with Indiana world coin dealer Al Boulanger. His wife is in the hotel business. He told me that he has noticed that in this recession the hotel business and the coin business seem to track exactly. He first noticed this some while ago when arrived home after a bad show. His wife happened to volunteer information that her booking inquiries had slid. This got his attention and he has been paying attention to the possible correlation of the two businesses since.

My response to Al was to suggest we explore this topic further in a Coin Chat Radio interview. Perhaps numismatists should be following the state of the hotel business as a means of keeping track of our own business levels.