Money draws enthusiasts to museum

The flash of cash, the clink of silver dollars, the smell of money all drew hundreds Saturday to the new plaza of the Nevada State Museum for its annual Carson City Mint Coin Show.

Collectors and browsers alike pawed through piles of silver dollars and wheat cents, looking to fill empty spaces in collections, for gifts for grand kids or for an elusive rarity that may have slipped past everyone else and ended up in the miscellaneous bin.

Coin dealer Frank Trask of Arrowhead Coins said recent new coins issued by the U.S. Mint has increased public interest in coin collecting.

"With the Sacagawea dollars and the statehood quarters that have come out, more people have started collecting," Trask said. "When you first start collecting, you tend to go toward the things that are most familiar, the new coins."

Besides copper, nickel, silver and gold coins ranging back over more than a century, Trask had a couple of the new golden Sacagawea dollars on his table. They were marked $1.50, but he traded them for a buck without even a haggle.

The 1999 Susan B. Anthony dollars, which were produced and issued by the Mint after the stockpiles from 1979-81 finally ran out last year, were marked $5 each, though.

Ed Hoffman, who brought his wares from Ed's Coins and Currency in Elko, said many of his customers were educated collectors looking to fill out their want lists.

"The people interested in casino tokens and chips has really grown in the past few years, too," Hoffman said. He said the coin business isn't very active in Elko, where business in general has been slow with the drop in gold prices and resulting gold mine layoffs in the area, but he does a lot of his sales through mail order.

Chuck Carpenter of C & C Coins of Sonora, Calif., said he closed his retail coin store there a few years ago and does most of his business at weekend shows like this one.

"Lots of people here today are looking for silver dollars, of course, since this is Carson City," Carpenter said. "And the kids are looking through the pennies."

The Carson City Mint Coin Show started inside the museum, the former home of the mint, with a show in 1992, organizer Greg Corbin said. The next show was in 1995 and was held outside in the parking lot to the north of the mint. It has been held there annually since, but this year the former parking lot is now a landscaped plaza, providing a park-like setting for the canvas pavilions that protected about 35 vendors and a refreshment stand.

Corbin, who is an administrative assistant for the Nevada Division of Museums and History, said the Carson City show is very popular with the dealers, who reserve their spaces for the next year when they come to the shows. If any dealers do drop out before a show, there's a waiting list of others wanting to participate, Corbin said.

Don and Josephine Schmitz of the Nevada City Mint had the original Carson City Mint coin press running Saturday, stamping out one-ounce commemorative medallions that were then sold through the museum gift shop. Some of the silver and bronze Nevada Millennium coins were also available at the show.

The Carson Mint Coin Show continues today 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Admission to the museum is free during the show.