The following was posted by Chris.

Many of you have no doubt seen examples of NGC, PCGS, ANACS, etc. holders out there with custom inserts. We thought we'd take the opportunity to share some that we have.

We did this promotional insert when our state quarter came out.

We did this one to commemorate Tom's 50 years in the coin business.

Tom had a custom insert created for his son Russell when he graduated high school. He had both Silver and Gold Eagles holdered. Keep in mind gold was less than $500/oz back then. Had he graduated today, not sure how many (if any) Gold Eagles would have been used!

This one I picked up many years ago. I was attending a coin show in Baltimore and was fortunate enough to be invited on a bus ride down to the Smithsonian to view part of the National Numismatic Collection. NGC had these holders done as a commemoration of an exhibit opening.

And lastly, this piece I received from a good friend, who happened to be my very first friend in the coin business, going all the way back to 1996! It commemorated his wedding. 

Do you have any custom holders in your collection. If so, we'd love to see them! Please email them to chris@northeastcoin.com and I'll get them posted.

Our apologies for the lack of blog posts lately! We've let personal and business travel get in the way. The following was written by Frank.

     My numismatic journey started in elementary school. I remember distinctively when I was 7 or 8, my father came home from work with a 1961 Washington silver quarter that he had found in his pocket change. He pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to me, explaining the significance of the coin; the coin was made of 90% silver, giving it a value of a few dollars. I was fascinated; it never occurred to me that a coin could be worth more than its face value. My dad gave me the coin, which remains the pinnacle of my personal collection to this day.

     My dad must’ve seen how interested I was in the one coin he gave me, so he pulled out his coin collection from his teenage years. My dad explained to me that most of the coins in his collection were found in circulation. Like many families, we have a large container of loose change that accumulates over time. I went through the entirety of it, finding a few Lincoln wheat cents, including one from 1912, a coin nearly 100 years old at the time. Searching through change seemed to be the most cost effective way for me to add coins to my collection at such a young age.

     I soon began begging my parents to take me to local banks to buy rolls of coins to go through. My order regularly consisted of $50 of pennies and $100 of nickels every other week; I always seemed to find at least one Buffalo nickel, or a silver war nickel in every $100 of nickels that I went through. Along with searching through rolls of coins, I started metal detecting. I received a Whites Coinmaster Pro on my birthday in elementary school and began digging up our property. My very first silver coin found metal detecting was an 1875-S Seated Liberty Dime found on our property. My mom and dad would also take me to a local coin shop on my birthday and give me $50 to spend on new coins for my collection. At some point, I received a Red Book, which I studied intensely, memorizing the key dates of different series.

     My mom and dad also took me to many local coin shows. My favorite show of the year was located in Westford, MA right before Christmas. This show was super special because there was a dealer (Northeast Numismatics) who ran a great promotion, all children received a free handful of coins. I went to this show with my brother and friend, who also got a free handful of coins. When we all got home, we began researching and trading the coins with each other.

     The 1961 Washington quarter that my dad gifted to me impacted my life on so many levels. It introduced me to the great hobby of numismatics and surely changed my career trajectory, which has led to many great relationships.

The following was written by Chris.

The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money was held last week in Rosemont, Illinois. In attendance from Northeast was Frank, Brian, Russell (Tom’s son who sometimes works shows with us), and me. Tom was unable to make the trip, the first ANA he missed after 52 straight years! See his blog post from earlier this month to learn why.

We flew to O’Hare Sunday evening. Our flight was delayed by two hours, though I think weather had something to do with it. For once it was not JetBlue’s fault! Business for us started Monday morning at Dealer Day. I got an early shot looking at coins at a few of my regular wholesalers. Sadly, I didn’t get to look as early as I would have liked, since apparently some dealers flew in Saturday to do business on Sunday. These shows just keep getting longer and longer!

We were all very busy at the show. One long-time coin friend of mine was just across the aisle from me, and I didn’t realize this until three days in to the show! She said I had my head down pretty much the entire time, and she was right. If I wasn’t looking through boxes to buy coins, I was pricing out coins that other dealers had pulled from our inventory.

Brian tried a somewhat different approach to sales at this show, and it seemed to pay off. We had a pretty strong selling show, which is great. Buying was just so-so. Frank and I each bought around two and a half double row boxes of coins. For large shows like this, I usually buy closer to four boxes. We still managed to come home with some cool coins.

Most of our meals were at Gibson’s restaurant, which is a very nice steak place. It’s right across the street from the convention center, so we did takeout from there. We often skip lunch at shows, so it was a nice treat to be able to eat every day!

Brian flew home a day early for family obligations. I stayed until around noon on Saturday, and Frank and Russell wrapped up the show and flew home Saturday night. My flight home was ON TIME. Of course, I was flying Delta for the return trip, so that’s why the plane left when it was supposed to.

For fun on Friday night, Russell, Frank, and I went bowling. We had a great time. I got my @ss handed to me every single game by both Russell and Frank. I’ll get em back next year!

The following was written by Tom.

We have been busy in the office in recent days getting ready for this important annual convention.  Preparing inventory, making arrangements to meet with clients looking to buy or sell, contacting dealers to view inventory early in the show as well as making arrangements for social engagements in the evenings.   Never to be missed it has been 52 straight years that i personally have attended.  Fresh out of business college in 1972 I still recall the New Orleans show, Boston the following year, & in the subsequent years to  Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City & elsewhere around the country.

This year Northeast will be well represented with Chris Clements, Brian Alty, Frank Sawin, & Russell Caldwell in attendance.  I however will be taking a break. I am preparing to have open heart surgery soon & air travel has been advised against by my doctors. Yes, the show camaraderie will be missed but Chris, Brian, Frank & Russell will be there to serve you.  If you are at the show hope you stop by table 604 /606 to visit.   You can also contact me anytime at tom@northeastcoin.com 

The following was written by Helen (Chris' daughter). She is off to Elon University in the fall.

     There are two questions a child is typically asked by an adult. The first is “what do your parents do?” I always loved watching adults' faces grow in confusion, and surprise, that a young child just used a big word like numismatist, a word that they didn’t even know. I would then go on to brag about how cool and unique of a job it is and how smart my daddy is. The second question would always be “what do you want to do when you grow up?” Now this question was always answered with a little more hesitation than the first; I look back now as a senior in high school bound for college and realize just how much influence my dad has had on the answer to this question.

     Let’s begin by pondering what it is about being a numismatist that singles them out as a very special breed of people. Having grown up with one as my dad, I feel like I can bring an interesting approach to this discussion. For starters, if you are a numismatist you have to be very dedicated to the job. My dad is usually home at 7:00pm, but if I don’t see him, I never need to ask to know that he is still at the office working with coins. Secondly, they’re geeks. And I mean this in the kindest way possible! When my dad gets home from work, I always ask him how his day was and he tends to respond lengthily about either the goings on at the office or about a particularly exciting coin he either bought or sold. He loves to tell me all about the different coins he saw that day or the coins in his own personal collection. In fact, when I was a kid, he used to bring coins home from the large treasure box of mostly worthless but cool coins that they keep in their conference room for kids to grab for free. Thanks to this, at the age of ten I had a very impressive bag of collectables. Despite all his efforts, I never really got into numismatics, although I definitely developed an appreciation for it as I grew up hearing him geek out over his many findings.

     The other thing to remember about numismatists is that they travel a lot, so they begin to develop professional critiquing skills about various airlines. I’m sure y’all have seen or heard the rants my dad has gone on about JetBlue’s inability to function properly. Now, imagine that Every Single Time he flies. And yet he still never switches airlines. In other words, along with being professional travel critics, numismatists are very loyal. Although I suppose I can’t complain too much since most of his traveling would lead to me getting a little something from either the airport or state he visited. I remember he brought home a stuffed alligator from a Florida coin show that I absolutely loved and still have today!

    And finally, perhaps the most important thing to know about many numismatists (particularly my dad), is the work ethic many embody. One of my most prominent childhood memories is that of school snow days spent at his office and how this experience influenced me in two major ways. First, because of those days, it became very obvious to me how much my dad loves his job. I would be watching Dora on my iPad and look up to see him completely transfixed on his coins. The bright blinding light, the small magnifying glass, and box of coins nearby. That was the happiest I’d ever seen him next to when he is at home with me and my mom.  Second, as I grew older snow days became a reason to put me to work when I came into the office. I would be set to filing grading submissions and invoices for Northeast. This was actually my first paying job. At first, I didn’t entirely understand why he was having me do this but I soon learned that this was to teach me about work ethic. He had spent so many late nights at the office processing coins and doing other numismatic things, and filing seemed like a way for him to teach me why.

    Now, going into college, I can finally answer the question of what I want to do when I grow up. The simple answer is, I want to be an elementary school teacher. The long answer is that I want to do something that will make me happy and excited, something that makes me want to put my now strong, work ethic to use. With a major in elementary ed, I’m hoping that I will end up doing something that is as important to me as being a numismatist is to my dad.