If the 2003 ANA Convention was the barometer for the Error coin market as well as the entire numismatic market. Then we are still in a heated Bull market

   Attendance and coin sales were very heavy, auctions set many price records, and everyone I know had a fantastic Convention. People who attended had so many places to visit such as the BEP paper money exhibit, tour the Mints from around the world, or view all 5 1913 Liberty nickels in the exhibit area.

    Millions of dollars of coins were auctioned off, but what was of special interest to myself and many others were the large selection of Errors offered in the Bowers/Merena auction, over 400 lots of the finest errors to enter the market place in 30 years. Many of the errors were of the personal collection from Bill Fivaz, a noted numismatic scholar, collector, researcher and co-author of the Cherry Pickers Guide.

   So what is an error auction like when the market is HOT! Well as in any HOT market, you either pay the price for a special item or someone else will.. When there is only a handful of quality items available and a LARGE number of buyers looking for such items. Then only the fastest check book will get to own it.. We were lucky enough to bid high enough to purchase many of these one of a kind rare errors, many of which are now listed in our inventory. WHY? pay such high prices.. you may be asking yourself! Well as we see it this market is still in its infancy and still has YEARS of growth yet to come. Between the State Quarter craze, New discoveries headlining the covers of numismatic papers, all the new people bitten by the error bug and the lack of new error material coming out of the Mint. What else can you have but a BULL Market!

    On a different matter, Bill Fivaz and myself have been asked to teach a class on Error coins at the ANA Summer seminar next year. The full week course is in the making and it should prove to be a fantastic learning experience for all who attend. More info as the course developes will be available by the ANA and here in this newsletter.

    Till next month

   Remember buy quality coins, not quantity

- Rich