On Thursday I worked half a day and after lunch headed up to Baltimore for the Whitman Coin Expo. I quickly ran into Greg Bennick near the Stack's Bowers table and the two of us headed over to Gerry Fortin's nearby table to speak with Len Augsburger about Greg's recent interviews for NNP. The one with Larry Lee is a must-read, and it starts in this issue.

I had a present for Len. Some months ago he'd given me his want list of American Journal of Numismatics issues, and on Monday I'd finally found time to rebox and inventory my stock of AJN back issues. I only had a single issue Len needed, but what an issue - these had come from the publisher's backstock, and the issue was clean, pristine and uncut, just as it had left the printer.

I was looking to speak with Chris Karstedt of Stack's Bowers and SBG President Brian Kendrella let me know I could find her at auction lot viewing. On my way I stopped at the food vendor in the lobby and learned that they wouldn't accept cash. When I pushed back on this, I could tell that it wasn't that first time the staff had gotten complaints. . I was going to tip them a five dollar gold piece, but kept it in my pocket and gave them a credit card instead. They didn't have a good answer to my question - "So what are you going to do if the power goes out?"

On the way upstairs I ran into a longtime New York dealer and I asked if he was going to auction viewing as well. "No - I'm going to the can."

Once there I learned Chris was busy but could see me in ten minutes or so. So I decided to do something I hadn't done in a long time - look at some lots. I registered, grabbed a catalog, sat down and asked for a few lots. I was at least prepared with a mental list, for earlier in the week I'd read through the hardcopy catalogs SBG had mailed me.

My first request was for a modern piece, the first item in the physical cryptocurrency section - Lot 6001, a loaded Casascius 0.5 Bitcoin. But I was out of luck because the lot was still at the Costa Mesa office. The cryptocurrency lots are too valuable to insure and transport to the show. Lot 6005 is a Casascius 5 Bitcoin or "Bitnickel". At tonight's price of approx. $90,000 per Bitcoin, its' intrinsic value is nearly half a million dollars. I wish I could say I had a mint roll of them around here somewhere.

Here are some of the lots I *was* able to see:

Lot 1093: 1800 Mechanic Slave Hire Badge

Lot 1190: 1783 Chalmer's Shilling, Short Worm Variety

Lot 1311: Bar Copper

I recommend lot viewing to everyone. If you're not a bidder, make way for those who are, but if the staff is open, use the opportunity to learn by seeing rare pieces in person. I'd never held any of these items before, and it was particularly useful to see the slave badge in hand.

Back on the bourse floor I visited some of our E-Sylum advertisers, including Doug Winter, Julian Leidman, Jon Sullivan, Wayne Herndon, Charlie Davis and Tom Caldwell of Northeast Numismatics. I ended up making impulse purchases at the last three tables - more on those in my next Diary article.

At Wayne Herndon's table I found an election-related item. We've discussed some of these products in previous issues. Political item collectors can get bargains in the aftermarket. I didn't ask the price of this set, but it's probably cheaper than it was when first put on the market, even given the outcome of the election.

I did purchase this at Wayne's table. I don't believe I've ever had a piece of numismatic ephemera printed in braille.

I was aware of the Colonial Coin Collectors Club presentations Thursday evening, but I had a long drive home and work in the morning. I grabbed a quick meal around the corner at Kona while waiting out some of the rush hour traffic, then headed south to Virginia.

It was a super short show for me, but fun and productive. Along the way I also got to speak with (or wave to/bump fists with) Hunter Hicks, Mike Packard, John Kraljevich, Tony Terranova, Gerry Fortin, David Fanning, John Feigenbaum, Stu Levine, Chris McDowell and others. I'm very lucky to live near a metro area with a regular large show. It's so great to see and stay in touch with friends from all across the country. A wonderful whirlwind of numismatic fellowship. 'Til next time.