Whilst most people think the FUN show means it is a show full of FUN items (which is the case many times) it actually is an acronym for Florida United Numismatics organization that put the show on every year in Florida (mainly in Orlando, but it will be in Tampa in 2016). The acronym is perfect as the show is definitely a lot of fun………
This year there were again many hundreds of dealer, albeit mainly coins, but also many banknote dealers who had some amazing notes (sadly, many above my budget – actually a lot above my meager budget). I did, however, manage to snag a few notes and I will be putting them on my website as quickly as I possibly can. One gorgeous note, possibly the banknote of the year for 2014, was the amazing Trinidad new $50 polymer note (which was loaded onto the website immediately as it is such an amazing note)
One interesting feature this year’s FUN show was the addition of many beautiful FUN/ART notes in Polymer. These notes in the past have been expensive to create and for the banknote artist creating these beautiful and amazing notes the only option has been paper. However, due to a new process I saw many beautiful art notes in polymer. Just to give you a brief outline of some of the Polymer notes I saw there were:
- An amazing collection of new State dollars (see blog post)
- A beautiful new version of the very popular Paper 1 million euro
- An interesting Polymer issue of a Vatican note featuring the new Pope
- A stunning & unusual issue of a “commemorative” note of the artist love bird (Piwi Island)
- A complete new issue in Polymer of the very popular Marie Byrd Land notes (I will give out more details on this issue soon – as the artist would only sell one note from the series at this time – I have been told I will be the first to get the others when he issues them)
Most of these notes are created in limited editions of between five and ten thousand. Of course I would be remiss not to mention the special edition (not as part of the State note issues) Florida state note with the FUN prefix, which is limited to just 999 (most of which sold out at the show)
Anyway, a most notable show this year, and a 60 anniversary year as well and as always well attended by dealers albeit mostly coin dealers, but one of the biggest shows in the US for banknotes. I look forward to 2016 show in Tampa (if only to escape the freezing cold temperatures of Massachusetts).
