Of silver, Caesars and Lincoln

I am just back from the Chicago International Coin Fair. It was a good show. Chinese coins are on fire.

Ancients also are doing noticeably well.

The American Numismatic Society had a table on the bourse floor and collector Mike Gasvoda displayed his collection of the imperial Roman Twelve Caesars in gold, silver and bronze at that table.

To see that collection and its high quality was to have your socks knocked off. Because the display was on a bourse floor Mike said a number of people thought the coins were for sale and made offers to purchase certain pieces in the set.

Were the set to be auctioned today, it would bring multiples of $1 million. The only question would be how many multiples.

For those of us who don’t have checkbooks that can handle such sums, there was the phenomenon of silver to talk about. It was on everybody’s mind when it touched $43 a troy ounce.

Naturally, I came home with a few coins in change from toll booth transactions and buying snacks in the gift shop.

Two things caught my eye when I looked at my change.

The first thing was a Young Lincoln cent from 2009. I have received very few of the 2009 Lincoln designs ever, so getting one naturally catches my eye.

The other thing I noticed was that most of the quarters I received were from the pre-state quarter period.

I did get an Idaho quarter and a New Hampshire, but the other four had the standard eagle.