Clark County Show and More Smashed Pennies!

Yesterday was set up day and early bird buying at the Clark County Antique and Collectible show in WA. It's about a 45 minute drive across the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington. We do this show there once a year, in January. It's a bit smaller than the Expo show but it is one of our best selling shows. The people are really nice and fun at this show. Jimmy is looking pretty happy at the end of the day.

I do his displays for him and it's fun for this old retail shoppe owner. We had retails stores most of our married lives...pharmacies and gift shoppes. This retirement hobby is fun for us both.

Enjoy some photos of our booth. Unfortunately, I didn't snap pictures until the end of the day, so a lot of our goodies are missing from the photos....but then, I am not complaining. I am thankful for such a wonderful day of sales!

You get to know a lot of people in the trade. There's a man who does Estate sales and the shows who knows I collect smashed pennies.  He brings me pennies at each show...isn't that nice? I got 3 yesterday. I did a blog post earlier on my collection, but wanted to share a bit more about the pennies.

According to Wikipedia, this is the definition of these pennies which are also called elongated pennies.

"Elongated coins are coins that have been elongated (flattened ore stretched) and embossed with a new design with the purpose of creating a commemorative or souvenir  token.  The collecting of elongated coins is a branch of numismatics. Elongated coins are categorized as exonumia."

This is my very first smashed penny that was given to me by my Uncle Rich when I was just a girl. I always loved it and saved it. It's the Lord's Prayer.

This is my Penny Passport~the keeper of my collection.

I have started a second book now. It's a great way to keep these together and enjoy them. My granddaughter Ava likes them too, so I got her a book.

These are the new ones I received yesterday...the Golden Gate Bridge, A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, featuring Santa, and the 10 Commandments. Really cool!

I did a little research and the first smashed penny was done in 1893 for the Columbia Exposition in Chicago.

Today, most machines look like this. I like this kind as I can crank the wheel and watch the operation. Some machines just pump them out and you don't do anything. You can find them at museums, historical places, souvenir shoppes and amusement parks.

They are divided into 3 groups....

1. OLDIES...1893-1965

2. Modern Elongateds...1965-1985 or so

3. Contemporary Elongateds...1988 to the present

As with all collecting, it gets detailed. If you are interested in more information, there's a lot of information on the internet.

One last bit of information. If you have an iPhone, there is an app to find locations to get smashed pennies! It's called PENNY FINDER. I did download it on my phone for fun. It will give you local locations, locations by states and even international locations. FUN FUN FUN!

A Busy Weekend Show!

Yep, here's my Jimmy again! He looks pretty tired as this photo was taken after we set up his booth at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Washington last Friday. He does 3 shows in Oregon and 1 in Washington.
The show in January is quite a bit smaller in size, but it actually is a very good selling show for us. He got a double booth this time and it's quite nice to have extra room for the customers to get into the booth. Friday was a bit slow, but wow....he did fantastic on Saturday and yesterday on Sunday. Even the Seahawks playoff game on Sunday didn't spoil his sales. Jim has such a gift for selling and people really love to chat with him. I love to set up the shows and that's my job. All of these pictures are from the set up. I really should have taken some photos of the booth when we take it down! He sold sooo much this time. With a pocketful of $$$ he will have to start shopping again. The next show is the first weekend in March!

This is the "Tasha" section. We call it that in honor of Tasha Tudor...more primitives and wooden items. It sells well at this show and in the fall in Oregon.

The "Men's" section. We have expanded it to 1 1/2 sections as it always brings the guys in. There's a lot of things to tempt women at these shows but not always a lot for the menfolk. Jim does well with this section at the shows.

The 3rd section is mine to play with and try different things. I can work with a theme so the booth always looks a bit different. This time I went with a little Valentine look with red hearts  and red items.
I had fun with this table and we can offer a different type of merchandise this way.

We play around with this white display at each show. This time we filled it with tea cups, kettles and tea time napkins. It's a fun display piece. Think Downton Abbey.

I am thankful for the good show. It's a lot of work, but a fun retirement "hobby" that allows us to make some extra money to go on the hunt to buy for the next show! We are two tired old dogs today! don't thing we will be doing much today.
Our handyman Duane hauls all of this in and out at the shows. Without Duane, we could never do this. Thanks Duane!