The 43rd Annual New York International Numismatic Convention was held at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel over an 11 day period from Friday, January 2 through Monday, January 12. According to Kevin Foley, long time Bourse Chairman for the event originally founded by dealer Richard Margolis, 128 separate dealers from 18 states and 16 foreign countries participated as booth holders. In addition to the final count of 169 Early Bird/Professional Preview attendees, there were 1,999 public attendees for the four day bourse that took place from January 8-11. The bourse was preceded and followed 10 days of auction lot viewing and nine days of auctions.
Nine different auction companies presented a total of 16 sessions of auctions dealing exclusively with foreign and ancient numismatics. Participating auction firms were Heritage, Classical Numismatic Group, M&M Numismatics, Baldwin’s, Ira and Larry Goldberg, Dmitry Markov, Stack’s-Bowers-Ponterio, Kolbe & Fanning Booksellers and Gemini Auctions.
Bourse Chairman Foley said of the event, “Everyone with even a passing interest in foreign or ancient numismatics owe it to themselves to attend the NYINC at least once. It is just such a vibrant event. People come from all over the world to be at the NYINC. It is a sort of United Nations of Numismatics. In addition to our booth holders from 16 separate foreign countries, we had public registrants from Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, Israel, the Ukraine, Belarus, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador and Pakistan. In addition, our public registrants hailed from 33 separate states. The NYINC is truly a convention in every sense of the word and not simply just a big coin show.’
He continued, “The action is just non-stop from the opening of the Professional Preview on Thursday until the last dealer is out the door on Sunday afternoon. In the course of my numismatic career spanning 38 years I’ve probably attended 750+ coin shows or conventions and managed upwards of 150. There is just nothing anywhere like the NYINC. In fact, one of our public attendees who first came four or five years ago, traveling from the West coast, told me that he first came at the suggestion of a dealer friend and said to me this year: ‘Kevin, the NYINC is by far the high point of the year for my numismatic activities. I wouldn’t miss it for anything. It is just like you claim, dealers I can’t find anywhere else and between the auctions and the bourse area, just about anything anybody could even suggest is available here. I’m hooked’ That really is what is special in my own mind about the NYINC. There very simply just isn’t another numismatic event anywhere that is quite like it. It is energizing to be here and be a part of the NYINC.”
The 128 dealer bourse area for the 2016 44th Annual NYINC was just three booths short of being sold out by the time that the 2015 event concluded. Foley said, “Being sold out or nearly so a full year in advance is very typical for the NYINC. I know that show and convention sponsors always issue post-event press releases extolling the levels of activity in their bourse areas, but I really do think that being 98% sold out with the booths actually paid in full a year in advance tells the story better than any advertising puffery a Bourse Chairman could conjure up. That kind of enthusiasm from our booth holders can only be generated by real success. While we typically never have more than a handful of openings for new dealers, we do keep a waiting list, so I urge dealers who’d like to be part of the NYINC in the future to contact me via e-mail at [email protected] with their complete contact information. It may take a few years, but not even asking will lead to never being on board for the palpable excitement of the NYINC.
The 2016 44th Annual NYINC bourse dates will be January 7-10, with auction viewing currently scheduled to begin on Saturday, January 2. Auctions will be held from Sunday, January 3 through Monday, January 11. Foley also mentioned that potential attendees should check the NYINC website, www.nyinc.info, with some frequency, as the auction viewing schedule may expand and 2016 sleeping room rates at the Waldorf will be announced on the website by the end of February.
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Media contact:
Kevin Foley
(414) 807-0116
[email protected]
