Time for post-show evaluation

Being back in the office this morning is a bit of a letdown after an exciting week at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Ill.

A hectic schedule offered me little opportunity to think. It was a time to vacuum up news and see old friends and new acquaintances. In short, it was everything a convention should be from a personal and professional standpoint.

However, the post-action assessments will now flow hot and heavy.

There is a lot to assess.

First and foremost is the gold Kennedy half dollar offer. Individuals who got coins were almost deliriously happy while those who did not were deeply upset.

I am sure the U.S. Mint will be analyzing its experience and the ANA board will be doing the same.

As nearly everyone now knows now, the sales of the gold Kennedy halves were stopped after the third of a planned five days, reducing the supply of coins from ANA to 1,500 from 2,500.

I walked by the Mint booth just before noon on Thursday, which would have been the fourth day Almost nothing was going on. There were too many employees standing around and too few customers.

A little further along was the area for kids and then the ANA museum display. Both of these were just as empty of the public.

I told myself it was about lunch time, so why would people be in the area?

I went to the food stand, and there weren’t many people there, either.

It was Thursday. It was a between day.

Those who wanted to hit the bourse tables to see new inventory would have been in earlier in the week.

Those people who work during the week would not yet have arrived.

Yet it still seemed lackluster, because this was on the busy side of the convention hall.

It might seem strange to individuals who do not attend these conventions, but the area at the end of the hall where the only entrance is was much more active than the area at the far end of the hall where carpet gives way to cement and finally you reach the club tables and exhibit area, which is decidedly not commercial.

The Krause Publications booth was in the latter area.

It was nice to see people come by, but they had a long walk to find us.

By the time I left on Saturday afternoon, we had given away all of the issues of World Coin News, Coins Magazine and Bank Note Reporter, but we still had some copies of Numismatic News left. That is just about a perfect result, because you do not want anyone who comes to the table to go away empty-handed.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."