I spent Thursday afternoon and evening in Baltimore at the Whitman Coin Expo. The summer event is smaller than the fall and spring shows, but there were still plenty of people and activity.

I took a number of photos, starting with a display at the Stack's Bowers table of upcoming lots from the Syd Martin collection. Sorry for the glare from overhead lighting.

Great medals!

While walking the floor I visited with E-Sylum advertisers Tom Caldwell and Chris Clements of Northeast Numismatics, Dave and Melissa Kahn, and Julian Leidman. Others like Wayne Herndon of Wizard Coin Supply and Harry Laibstain were busy with customers when I passed by their tables.

The Whitman booth always had customers, too. I took some photos of the displays after running into Ray Williams of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club and talking for a bit.

At the Mid-American table I spoke with Mary Lynn and Jeff Garrett, who told me about the newly discovered Great Kentucky Hoard. Great find!

Here's some nice paper money at Julian Leidman's table.

I had some time to kill midafternoon so I walked over to the Inner Harbor. I thought I might even try visiting the National Aquarium, which I hadn't seen since we took our kids there once many years ago. Then I saw the ticket prices.

Plan B was much cheaper. I'd never been to the observatory atop Baltimore's World Trade Center building. Called Top of the World, it has great views of the Inner Harbor, Fort McHenry and the Baltimore skyline. Adult admission was $8 or $6 for seniors 60+. To my chagrin I qualify for the senior rate, and handed over a $20 bill at the ticket booth. I'm still scratching my head over why I was handed back $17 in change, but I wonder if anyone under 40 even knows how to count cash anymore.

Anyway, the experience was worth it despite it being a hazy day due to the lingering Canadian forest fire smoke blanketing the city that day. The views are impressive, and there are nice exhibits commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks and famous Baltimore natives.

Back at the show I stopped to check out the numismatic ephemera at the lobby handout table. It's election season for the American Numismatic Association, and there were three different candidate flyers. members: don't forget to vote!

John "JD" Dannreuther had a copy of his new book on proof nickels at his table, and he explained to me a bibliophile conundrum he's pondering. His work on proofs is being published in multiple volumes over several years. The books are numbered and bibliophiles purchasing complete sets naturally prefer having the same number across all volumes. But what if the volumes are produced in different quantities? The gold book was a big seller and the silver one likely will be, too. But fewer individual buyers are opting for the nickel volume and as shown in the large printout of the numbering plate, it will be limited to 150 copies.

So here's the problem - What if someone assembling a set was say, the 175th to order the gold books? What sense would it make for the nickel book to say that it's number 175 of 150 copies? Have publishers run into this situation before? How did they handle it?

At the West Coast Coins table I saw this notice for a new edition of Joe Cronin's book on error coins.

I didn't get to speak with Tom Reynolds, but I took photos of two great trays of early copper at his table. Click on the images to see larger versions on our Flickr archive.

At 5:30 the show switched to one-way traffic. I met up with Newman Numismatic Portal Project Coordinator Len Augsburger at Gerry Fortin's table and we headed out to dinner. We ended up at the nearby Kona Grill. I'd never been there, but had a nice meal and glass of wine.

We had a nice long conversation about mostly NNP topics, including the NNP Symposia, web archiving, software development status, and the Newman Grants. It was relaxing to just sit and chat for a couple hours. Len had to head off to another appointment, and I pointed my car back home to Virginia. I'm looking forward to my next convention, the August ANA World's Fair of Money® in Pittsburgh.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: MINT ERRORS TO DIE FOR, 2ND EDITION(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n39a04.html)