The Toronto Coin Expo will open its doors in downtown Toronto today with three educational workshops, one of which will explore the joys of building a numismatic collection.
The show, which is held at the Toronto Reference Library on 789 Yonge St. in Toronto, Ont., will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. today and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. tomorrow. Admission is $6 (and children aged 16 and under are free).
In addition to a nearly 40-dealer bourse, today’s festivities include a series of educational workshops that are free to attend for children as well as paid admissions to the two-day show. The workshops will be held in the library’s Bram and Appel Salon.
- “Coin Collecting for Kids” at 10:15 a.m.
This workshop is for the young (and young at heart) who want to learn more about what beginners can collect. Attendees will see how chocolate coins are made; they are “strikingly” similar to how the Royal Canadian Mint produces coins. - Youth coin auction at 10:45 a.m.
This will be fun-filled auction for younger numismatists. The auction is only for young collectors, who will use play money to buy real items. - “The Pleasure of Building a Coin Collection” at 1 p.m.
Join Jaime Flamenbaum in a hands-on workshop guiding you in the quest of what to collect. Everyone and every collection is different, and the workshop intends to expand on the never-ending numismatic thematic collecting. One can decide to collect everything or a portion of something; cheap or expensive coins; rarities or pocket change and derive the same pleasure of building a personal and satisfying collection. Flamenbaum is inviting collectors to share their favourite topics and material with fellow attendees.
A 1658-A douzain pattern issue struck in silver as a piedfort is expected to bring upwards of $8,000 as Lot 106 in the Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale.
ARCADIA COLLECTION
Today is also the final day of the Toronto Coin Expo Spring Sale hosted by Geoffrey Bell Auctions, which is offering the Arcadia Collection, highlighting a seminal part of North American financial history.
Coins of the French Regime, which includes New France – the former French colony spanning much of present-day eastern Canada and parts of the U.S. – are “some of the most important pieces of history in Canadian numismatics,” said auctioneer Brian Bell, of Geoffrey Bell Auctions. The sale, which began yesterday, a day before Coin Expo kicks off, will feature nearly 500 individual coins covering the entire range of French coinage struck for, or used in, colonial North America.
“It spans well over a century, incorporates many distinct coinage types and metals, comprises regular struck coins, overstrikes and countermarks and has a wealth of varieties with at least some types struck at each of the 29 French mints,” said Bell, who’s also the owner of The Coin Cabinet in Moncton, N.B.
For more information, visit torontocoinexpo.ca.