John crossing the Pont Mount Blanc bridge in Geneva, Switzerland

I just returned from a wonderful and refreshing trip to Switzerland to visit relatives and take some time off to spend with my family. If you’ve heard great things about the Swiss people, and the food (chocolate, cheese, etc) then you may still be unprepared for the high quality of all those things. We enjoyed 7 days over there and saw many great sites.

However, one of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Geneva to visit a coin dealer, who was introduced to me by a mutual friend. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I’ve had mixed results in visiting coin dealers in various (mostly U.S.) cities over the years, and usually the efforts are fruitless. In this case, however, I made the acquaintance of an instant friend. A true gentleman that speaks the universal language of coin dealers. We both have the same questions relating to the future of the hobby, whether our children will follow in our footsteps and even what impact Obama’s leadership might portend for our global hobby.

Swiss Franc

The long and short is that coin collecting is an International hobby and even professional dealers are remarkably similar all over the globe. It was fun…and enjoyable. Oh yeah, I even bought a handful of interesting Swiss pieces — an area we’ve been developing coincidentally. Our auction last night had a nice, fresh group of gem Swiss Franc coinage in it and we have more on the site for direct sale. Stay tuned for more offerings as these get processed and graded.