Getting On with it

It is of course impossible to ignore the events of the last few months, events that started with the September 11 atrocities in New York and, sadly, have yet to end. Events that have, to all intents and purposes changed the face of the world forever. Undoubtedly these events shocked us all but now the initial horror is waning what effect will September 11 and its aftermath have on our lives? Will we now be plunged into economic turmoil? Will the world again face the spectre of recession? You could be forgiven for thinking yes, that is the inevitable consequence, however in our hobby and trade at least this doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Certainly there have been effects on the hobby as there have in every walk of life. People are on their guard and most of us listen to news bulletins and watch television with a renewed anticipation. Some people are reluctant to congregate in large groups and it has been noted in some sectors that American dealers and collectors are, in some cases less eager to travel overseas than perhaps they were two months ago. However things are by no means as bad as may have once been feared and whilst some US dealers may have hesitated about taking to the skies again many others have not – as their attendance at the recent OMRS convention showed. Indeed the show was testament to just how buoyant our market remains, terrorist atrocities or not. The dealers' bourse at the convention was busy all day and the DNW auction the day before attracted a record number of bidders, with plenty of record prices being acieved. The whole event was declared a phenomenal success and again there were few few who would, or could disagree. For us at Token the convention was outstranding, with the launch of our new, fully revised, MEDAL YEARBOOK and the first offering of our latest Title SUCCESS OF A GENERAL by Brian Kieran; both books were snapped up by dozens of eager readers. The Spink auction held the following week also attracted large numbers of bidders and prices continue to go 'through the roof'. There will undoubtedly be the cynical few who insist that this buoyancy in the hobby will not last as the effects of the New York and Washington horrors take hold, or indeed those who believe that it is in fact caused by the atrocities with investors hurriedly pulling out of shares and less tangible assets in favour of more traditional investments and thus creating a false market that will only last a short time; we like to take a less depressing line but not necessarily one tinged with too much false optimism – certainly September 11 had a profound effect on us all and yes there might be a certain amount of new money coming into the market having lost faith in stocks and shares; however there is also very much an air of “business as usual” of not letting the terrorists “gain the upper hand” and of “getting on with things because otherwise they win”, and whilst the medal market might not be the place you would immediately expect to find such resilience it seems to be there in bucketfuls, long may it remain so.