At a time when many numismatic events are experiencing challenges and difficulty in maintaining the size of their bourse area, the Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) convention is actually growing, according to Convention Chairman Kevin Foley.
“During our 2018 convention,” he said, “we were approached by a delegation of booth holders and the management of the Chicago Coin Expo, which was itself an effort to revive the former Chicago International Coin Fair, seeking to have CSNS incorporate that event into our own. We did that at our just-concluded 80th Anniversary Convention and now have a dedicated world and ancient section in our 300-plus-booth bourse. This initiative was quite successful and our 2019 convention bourse included roughly 40 world and ancient specialists, well above the less than 10 we’d had in the past.”
Foley continued:
“In addition, the Professional Currency Dealers Association (PCDA), which had held their own paper money focused convention as a free-standing event for the past 34 years, has accepted our invitation to include their National Currency Convention as an official part of our convention beginning in 2020 at our April 22-25 81st Anniversary Convention at the Schaumburg Convention Center and adjoining Renaissance Hotel. Our board views the incorporation of this second numismatic event into our own as a real win, win for all involved, the PCDA, CSNS, and our participants and attendees, whether they be dealers with booths, numismatic professionals who come to do business with them, or our collector audience.”
He was joined by Central States President Mitch Ernst, who added:
“While we already have a significant representation of rare currency specialists in our bourse area, this new alliance with the PCDA will give their dealer members, as well as all their clients, an opportunity to participate in a substantially larger convention format while preserving the identity of the PCDA as a convention sponsor. In order to highlight the role of the PCDA in our convention, we’ll have special identification added to the booth signs of all the PCDA members who’ll be part of our bourse. We’ll also be providing space both for a PCDA board meeting as well as a general membership meeting for this long established dealer trade association that has now joined forces with us. This will also give CSNS an opportunity to expand our convention educational offerings with programs presented by PCDA members, many of whom are respected authors and researchers in their field.”
Dealers interested in bourse space at the CSNS convention can obtain an application from CSNS Bourse Chairman Patricia Foley at [email protected].
