Happy Holidays from everyone at Christopher’s Rare Coins! I hope you and your families are happy and healthy.

In this issue, I would like to discuss coin shows and how they can be fun and a great learning opportunity. I started going to coin shows in Omaha and neighboring towns in Northwest Iowa when I was in high school. I was very green but I was instantly amazed at how many different types of coins there were in a wide variety of grades. Looking at and studying many different coins helped me determine what I wanted specialize in as a young dealer.

Attending coin shows gives you the unique opportunity to compare many coins in many grades from many dealers in one place. Choose a type of coin and grade that you like then enjoy going from dealer to dealer and look at what they have to offer. Most likely you will discover that your favorite coin in a certain grade looks considerably different from dealer to dealer. Some of this may be due to a difference in eye appeal but other differences may be due to the fact that that coin is simply over graded.

I know a lot of reputable dealers that are strict graders. I also know of a number of dealers that tend to embellish their coin grades. Some of this is due to the fact that they are not good graders, but unfortunately there are dealers that intentionally over grade their coins to make more money. I believe their mentality is buyer beware.

When you buy coins on the internet, you don’t have the luxury of holding the coin in your hand for inspection and being able to compare it to other coins in the same setting.

At Christopher’s we have very strict grading standards. After each coin is graded, it goes to my desk for a final inspection before it goes into inventory.

There are a lot of coin shows going on in Iowa and the region in the winter and spring months. The best place to see the Iowa coin show schedule is to go to the Iowa Numismatic Association web site at ina.anaclubs.org, and to see the list of shows Christopher’s is participating in visit our events page or follow us on Facebook.

If you ever unsure about a coin you have and what grade it is, we are always happy to give you our opinion on it.

Hope to see you at the IOCC Show on December 11th!