Baltimore Coin Show
After parking my car I made my way to the lobby of the convention center to register for the show. This was going to be a whirlwind. My first stop was the table of Julian Leidman, which is right by the entrance to the show. We talked about The E-Sylum a bit, then made plans to meet up again at dinner.

Among my next stops was the table of Anthony Terranova, seated in front was none other than former Congressman and collector extraordinare Jimmy Hayes. We chatted about rarity and the importance of immediately buying those once-in-a-lifetime items since, well, you may never get another chance. I also got to meet Tony Terranova, who was manning the table with his father.

I think I visited Doug Winter next, where I asked him this question - Would more or less U.S. gold coins have survived without Roosevelt's ban on holding gold? What do E-Sylum readers think?

I sat with Don Kagin at his table for a while discussing ideas for expanding the content on the American Numismatic Association web site. Afterwards I ran into Mark Ferguson, who introduced me to Mark Tabb, who is now a new E-Sylum subscriber.

I walked over to Dave Perkins' table, but he was with customers and I didn't want to butt in. I think I went next to visit bookseller Charlie Davis and his tablemate Neil Musante. While there Neil introduced me to E-Sylum subscriber Marc from Virginia.

Next stop was David Lisot's CoinTelevision table, where I ended up being interviewed on camera about my multiple projects, The E-Sylum, the Newman Numismatic Portal and NBS. I stammered my way through and felt lousy about my performance, but I know David is a master video editor and somehow it will come out all right.

In the aisle in front of Whitman's large booth I ran into Dave Wnuck and talked for a while. I showed him the new email count on my phone, and it was up to about 104. I would have a lot to plow through this weekend to complete The E-Sylum Guess I made it somehow.

My phone rang and it was Len Augsburger. We'd seperated after getting to Baltimore. Turns out he was calling from the next aisle over, so we hung up and I walked over to finish our conversation. We compared notes on Dave Hirt's shipment and called him to confirm.

It's hard for me to walk anywhere at a major show without running into people I know. Soon I was talking with David Sundman as he pored over obsolete banknotes at the table of dealer Tom Denly.

I left the show floor at nearly 6pm but I wasn't done running into people. I stopped to speak with Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker of CoinWeek where I learned Charles would be covering the upcoming Mint Director's conference. Lucky him!

Next I headed toward the Sheraton Hotel lobby - destination: Morton's. More in Part 3 of this Diary.