Another year and another FUN (Florida United Numismatists) Coin Show is upon us. I will admit it seems to sneak up on me every year, but this year I was experimenting with something at the show that I’ll explain a little later and will go into more details in a future post. For now let’s head on over to the Orange County Convention Center.

This show happens twice a year, first in January for the Winter version and again in July for the Summer edition. Both shows are completely free to the general public, and all you need to get in is to fill out a name tab and grab a free gift bag.

Next we headed through the coin show archway and down the escalator to the bourse floor where security will make sure you have that name tag on.

The winter edition of the FUN show is huge and even just casually walking up and down each aisle can take a few hours. Then if you see something that grabs your attention you will be here much longer. I’ve always found everyone here to be very friendly and always looking to help answer questions. I’ve mentioned in the past that other than elongated coin collecting I’m not very knowledgeable about other forms of Numismatics but when something catches my eye I’m always interested in asking for more details. You never know when you may start up a new collection.

The total number of vendors and club booths is almost unbelievable, and I could spend days writing about each of them. However the one area that I do find I spend a lot of my time during this show is among the Educational Exhibits. Here you can find various categories of Numismatics and club members have created some amazingly detailed exhibits showing off portions of their collection along with details information about the subject.

These exhibits are judged and can be awarded prizes for their own category and then also for best in show. But from what I’ve been told by many collectors it’s not really about winning, more just about being able to share their collection with visitors.

Of course I always flock to the exhibits with elongated coins on display. There is currently no elongated coin category, so most are placed in one of the other more general categories. As you can see these are fantastic and you just never know what coins you may see on display.

At the beginning of this post I mentioned that I was experimenting with something at this years show and above is what I was talking about. A few months ago I decided to enter an exhibit in the show and worked on it for quite awhile until I was happy with how it came together. I will be writing a separate post in the future going over the entire process. It was a lot of fun to work on, and my family helped quite a bit. We didn’t win our category but that’s okay, as other collectors mentioned I just had a great time putting it together and was happy to show these very special coins from my collection.

Another staple of the Winter FUN show is that our friends at TEC (The Elongated Collectors) have a table and it’s always wonderful to catch up with friends like Cindy who I look forward to seeing each year. I was happy to meet Trish as well who was helping at the table this year, and Les has been a collecting friend for quite awhile and we have communicated through Facebook over the years. He’s been wonderful with sharing tips on new machines at both Disney and Universal and I really enjoyed finally being able to chat with him in person.

The TEC table always has some classic items on display, and plenty of elongated coins for sale.

I could spend hours just grabbing a chair and going through these bins filled with all sorts of wonderful treasures. If you are an elongated collector this is a great place to find some very unique coins for your collection at a great price.

As always TEC offers a free elongated coin that was designed specifically for the FUN show. These change each year and I always make sure to ask for a special copper version for my collection. This year Cindy also was giving away a new design she had created.

The booth also does have a coin press machine loaded with the special FUN Show design and is available to anyone that wants to press their pocket change or a special coin instead of the pennies on the table. Les was so wonderful to help my daughter press her copper penny.

Here is a closer look at the FUN 2023 elongated coin design. This years show theme was Exploring Space and Cindy created this really great design which seemed very popular to visitors at the show.

Next is the additional coin that Cindy had created with a great phrase on it “In a World where you can be anything Be Kind”. I love it and was able to get a few extras to hand out along my travels just because I think this is such a great sentiment.

We were able to get one additional coin from the show which is available for all first time visitors. I have been to many of these shows in the past, but for my youngest daughter it was her first time and the hosts checking us in were excited to give her one. So I just borrowed it for the picture and she now has it security stored in her room with all her other collectibles.

The FUN show is an event I truly look forward to each and every year since I found out about it. The summer version is not quite a large and TEC isn’t able to have a table due to the a conflict with scheduling for the larger ANA World’s Fair of Money held around the same time in a different part of the country. If you are ever in the area when this show is taking place I would highly encourage you to go check it out. Here is a link to the FUN Coin Club website where you can get information about membership and future shows. In past years they have hosted this event in different locations around Florida, but the last few years and it seems the next few future events are all in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center. Keep on Pressing!

---