The Beaumont Coin Show

The coin show was in a Convention Center that connected to a Holiday Inn where I had reserved a room.  Beaumont is about a five- to six-hour drive for me, so leaving early and returning well into the night would be too fatiguing.

The dealers were set up around the perimeter of a nice size room.  Each had a six-foot table, and a small width table behind them for storage, or for having other items available for sale.  Both tables were covered with tablecloths, the selling table in white, and the back table in tan or beige.

There was a small island of selling tables set in the center.

One table held a large coffee pot, and there were boxes of donuts.  These were available at no charge to both sellers and attendees.

In the back there were sandwiches for the sellers.  I did not go back to them, since my wife had gone to buy lunch for my family before I had heard of this.  They were out of sight from the attendees.

In the back of the room there were two raised banisters.  They blocked tables from view from the selling floor.  This section was used for the children’s auction discussed later in this article.

In the center island were about two dealers.  Also present was several tables for the Boy Scouts to sell their popcorn.  One lady had a basket with fragrant soap for sale.   She was located at a corner of the island.  The idea of having the Boy Scouts allowed to sell their popcorn, and roam to the coin dealers asking questions as they worked on their scouting projects, was a refreshing thing.  I had not seen such community awareness before.

The coin show was sponsored by the Beaumont Coin Club, but it appears there are several other coin clubs that support each other’s coin shows by both buying and selling at them.  It was quite clear that the Orange Coin Club and the Port Author Coin Club were present, and they were advertising their upcoming shows.

A person from one of the other coin clubs asked us to participate in his coin show.  It is to be a two-day show, but unlike most coin shows that are held on Saturday and Sunday when a second day is included his show will be on Friday and Saturday.  He said it was so people can get to church.  This is a refreshing attitude in the secular society of today.

Fortunately for us, Catholic churches in the area have Mass late on Sunday after a show, and early before the show starts on Sunday.  People of other religions are less fortunate.  Our club does have a minister who is a club member who voluntarily does a brief generic service before we open on Sunday.

One thing that the hobby of coin collecting needs is involvement by the next generation.  The Beaumont coin show handles this well.  At 3:00 p. m. the children go past the banister.  Each has some play money.  Whether this is given out or sold to them I do not know.  They then bid in a children’s auction, winning small coins.  There were probably over seventy coins auctioned.  Apparently, some or all of the coins were foreign coins.  Here, dealers pay about a dollar a pound for foreign coins, so there is little value, but the delight of the children leaving the auction was incredible.

Each child who participated also had a cardboard coin identification chart.  They carried their charts, and transparent bags that held their coins, proudly.

We also encourage children by handing out inexpensive quarters minted in San Francisco.  These quarters cost very little. The value to the children is they cannot find them in change.  But at our coin shows other dealers do not hand out anything.

We had many people come in, and most stopped at every table.  Some looked and moved on.  Others sat in one of the chairs provided, there were two chairs in front of each table.  Usually, those who sat wanted to look carefully.  While they looked, and often even after they finished, they wanted to discuss coins.  This is a great time for pleasant information exchange.  Many make a first pass, look things over, then return to the tables where they saw something they might like to own.

A few people wanted to sell their coins.  Many dealers buy coins at a show, but we do not.  We have our normal suppliers.

I left my adult son, who is my partner in this venture, in charge a couple of times while I walked about looking at what other dealers were selling.  It is wise to have a unique niche.  Indeed, our offerings were different, so we did quite well. 

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The introductory image is one we have of a British Queen's Beasts coin, the Black Bull of Clarence.  The pictured coin was one we had for sale at the show.