Silver gives PNNA show a boost

This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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A large crowd was on hand for the opening of the 62nd Annual Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association spring convention held April 8-11 at the Tukwila Community Center outside of Seattle, Wash. Billed as the largest coin show in the Northwest, the sold-out 90-plus table bourse was “extremely active,” according to organizers.

“We had an opening day record attendance of over 400 from noon until closing at 7 p.m.,” said Scott Loos, bourse chair. “Both collectors and the public were definitely in hyper drive buying mode, not just for anything silver, but collector medium grade type coins, tokens, medals and paper money as well. It’s hard to imagine that circulated silver dimes were trading at around 26 times face.”

Longtime coin dealer Gene Henry said: “Silver bullion and raw state U.S. silver dollars were hot, hot, hot items for me. I have to make a special trip back to my shop on Friday afternoon just to pick up more silver dollar stock.”

Dealer Mark Gruner was also happy with the show results.

“Best PNNA show I have ever had in the last five years,” said Gruner. “Sales were brisk.”

A variety of numismatic presentations, under the direction of Gawain O’Conner, took place on Saturday. A keynote forum on numismatics of the early Northwest was led by numismatic scholar John Kraljevich. This program was followed by three others: “The Process Involved in Authoring Numismatic Books” by Rasiel Suarez, “Buying and Selling on eBay” by Eric Holcomb and “Numismatic Photography” by Chip Van Gilder.

Later that afternoon, the Silver Art Bar Collector’s Club and the Colonial Coin Collector’s Club held meetings.

PNNA’s general membership meeting and awards presentation took place in the early evening after the show closed. PNNA President Lisa Loos provided the membership withan number of association updates and thanked the Kings County Coin Club, the Olympia Coin Club and the Boeing Coin Club for the time, effort and donations put toward the convention.

Following the business portion of the meeting, Lisa Loos was joined by Danny Bisgaard, vice president and awards chairman for the awards presentation. Kicking it off was the presentation of the PNNA Presidential Award to Rick Schulz for his ongoing service as coordinator of numismatic outreach and for organizing and heading the PNNA Club Representative Program.

Walt Ostromecki, ANA governor and PNNA member who has run the association’s annual show youth educational activities since 1998, was recognized with the Nina Nystrom Memorial Goodwill Ambassador Award.

The Bob Everett Memorial Service Award, the group’s highest honor, went to Mike Labosier, PNNA secretary and 2011 Tukwila convention chairman.

Five competitive exhibitors were awarded for their efforts. The first place winners in their respective categories are:

United States and Canadian Coins

Thomas A. Tullis, “The 1936 Cleveland Centennial/Great Lakes Exposition Commemorative Half Dollar.”
Tokens, Medals and Decorations
James Reinders, “Small ‘3’ Change for the West Indies.” The display also took Bryon F. Johnson Memorial Best of Show honors.
World Coins and Paper
Reinders, “A Swedish 3 Daler Copper Plate From the Nicobar Wreck.”
General or Specialized
Reinders, “Minting Errors: Three Strikes and Other Three Errors.”
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Material
The C.E. Heppner Award‚ Katie Reinders, “Happy Birthday Oregon.”
Three non-competitive exhibits were displayed by James Reinders, Holcomb and Tom Sheehan.

PNNA has tentatively scheduled its 2012 convention again in Tukwila during the month of April. Exact dates are forthcoming.

For more information about PNNA, its shows, educational programs and current availability of its annual pewter show medals, visit www.pnna.org, or contact Holcomb by mail at 1900 NE 3rd St., Suite. 106, Bend, OR 97701, by phone at (541) 647-1021, or by email at eric@holcomb.com.