My name is Lola Berastegui, and I’m 16 years old. This summer I have been working as an intern at Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC. After a month of working for the company, I had the opportunity to attend a coin show, the FUN (for Florida United Numismatists) show, in Orlando.
The FUN show organizers managed to put together an excellent 10th Annual Summer show with opportunities and learning experiences for everyone. The doors opened for set up Wednesday, and I was not there but Daniel and Cori were busy setting up the table. Dealers from all over the country had booth numbers, ours being #735, and the tables were set next to one another other with banners at the top showing the company names and location. On each table were metal cases with glass that contained dealers’ material. Most cases displayed coins, but there was also old paper money and even ancient artifacts and fossils.
Dan Sedwick at booth at summer FUN show
There were also a lot of activities for kids like panning for gold and spinning a wheel for prizes.
Augi’s daughter panning for gold at the FUN show
Thursday was my first day at the show. Emily picked me up and we followed Daniel and Augi to the show. After we parked, we went from one side of the convention center to the hall where the show was being held. Before we could enter we had to go through registration and get our picture taken for our dealer badge. We spent most of the show interacting with buyers and sellers and we attended a couple of seminars.
My first seminar was on Thursday at 1:00 PM called “Consumer Protection Update,” by Tony Swicer and Sandy Pearl. The speakers talked about how to watch out for overpriced or misrepresented items and it was aimed mostly at beginning collectors. I also attended a second seminar on Friday at the same time called “Fun With Foreign Coins,” by Bob Hurst (the current Vice President of FUN). Hurst talked to us about coins from all over the world and how affordable and interesting it can be to collect them. He showed us a variety of coins depicting different animals, plants, etc. He says there is something for every hobbyist and budget!
Lola and Emily Attending a Seminar
Friday at the FUN show was very similar, but I spent a lot of the time putting coins from a collection we got into flips and labeling them. This collection will eventually be auctioned in our upcoming November auction. We had also just sold some items that we listed on eBay the week before, and there was a USPS booth so we got to ship the lots that needed to be shipped from there. I later left around 2:00 PM. I can honestly say it was an outstanding experience and I’m looking forward to the January FUN show.
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