Our 75th Anniversary sale is on the horizon (November 2-3) in Baltimore showcasing an old time collection of Proof sets that have been in a private cabinet for decades—sure to be a crowd pleaser. Dave and I will be on deck at the sale and, after the sale, at the Whitman Coin Expo on Thursday and Friday with Dave hosting a symposium, “Me and the American Numismatic Association,” on Friday afternoon at 2 PM. Be sure to come by our table to say hello. We are now in our new location at the back of the room directly across from the front entrance.

Today in Wolfeboro we had a wonderful and entertaining lunch guest, Richard Eliasberg, who came to enjoy the sights and have a lobster roll, a New England favorite. During the course of our conversation on multiple topics, including the economy, Richard shared some of the illustrations he uses to help others fathom the magnitude of staggering numbers like a trillion dollars and a billion dollars. I found them interesting and share them with you here. If you were to be paid $1 million dollars a day, every day, from the time Christ was born until today, you would NOT have a trillion dollars—you would have about 3/4 of a trillion dollars. If you were to measure $1 million dollars made up of a stack of $100 dollar bills, the stack would be about 8-1/2 inches tall. A stack totaling $1 billion dollars would be the height of the Washington Monument. So the next time you hear about deficits and spending or recovery money, whether in your home state or Washington D.C., maybe you’ll think of this and better understand the enormity of the issue.

Amid all of this, we are gathering consignments for our spectacular world coin sale in early January in New York City and our always-popular Americana Sale later in the month. The 52 Collection Part II will also be held in January and Bruce Hagen can assist you with potential consignments for that event. In the meantime, I invite you to contact me or any staffer to include your coins, tokens, medals, or paper money in any of our January sales and those we have scheduled into 2011. Let Stack’s unparalleled record of auction success be your success too!

All the best,

Chris