Well, I thought I'd take a little time to write about our Central States get together. It was really a pleasure to be able to sit down and talk with some of the members of our WINS family. This is our second such meeting here in St. Louis and it was well worth the time to plan and set up. It's great to be able to communicate back and forth by email with our WINS group, but it's especially enjoyable to have the opportunity to sit around a table and talk face to face with our friends. We got together at Joe's for a few eats and drinks one evening.

Back row: Ray Larson, Meir Sapir, Rick beitler, (myself) Dave Noble.
Front row: John Mundwiller, Jason Craton, and, of course, the leader of the gang Joe Garbarini.

Unlike our first show, we had planned this one for a while, it all worked out pretty well. I would personally like to thank Meir for making the show, he came a long way to be with us. We attended the show as a group and got to meet up with Josh Moran (Civitis Galleries), shown left, who was set up at the show.

John Baumgart arrived Saturday and was able to attend the second day with us. He found a very rare but ugly Morgan Dollar Vam of which we haven't seen a scan as of yet. Charles and Jill made it to the show on Saturday also. I was worried we wouldn't get to see them this time, I know Jason was looking forward to meeting Charles in person. For those of you who have never experienced a big coin show, I hope some day you get the chance. It's a very exciting atmosphere, with what seems to be unlimited little gems to keep the old eyes busy. I certainly urge all of our group to try to set up such a gathering, you will not regret it. The closeness we all feel from our relationship on the WINS talk list, can not compare with the sharing of stories and viewing each others coins and special pieces in person. I look forward to my next member get together, and want you all to know how really special these meetings are to me.

A few pics from the show thanks to Charles: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6.

Hope to see you all soon at a show or two,

Dave