HiltonToronto Airport Hotel.

Torex Show continued ...The show's 40 dealers occupied tables in a sec-

ond-floor hall carpeted appropriately with large,red and black, coin-like rings swirling dizzyinglyacross the surface, with real coins, paper money,and jewellery housed in display cases lying flat ondealers' tables. A security guard regularly patrolledthe aisles. As at the Toronto Postcard Club Show,dealers also provided chairs for clients, mostly men- one father brought along his two bored-lookingteenage sons - to flip comfortably through papermoney. In the opening hour, the hall rattled withraucous exchange of comments and new moneyfor old money. One collector gladly counted outSroo-dollar bills to one lucky dealer.

A Newmarket, Ontario woman named Karen(surname understandably withheld), who collectscoins from treasure ships because her inspiring fa-ther was a treasure hunter for years, sought Spanishgold and silver doubloons. She shopped separatelyfrom her husband Don, who collects Chinese pandacoins.

Also in the room was collector Derek (surnamealso withheld), a Chinese Canadian, Toronto, whocollects only Canadian and Newfoundland coins.'Tm patriotic," he explained. After ten years, he hasamassed 100 coins.

But quantity should never usurp quality. "Papermoney is priced on condition," said Georgetown,Ontario dealer Gary Fedora. "The better the con-dition, the higher the value." For example, Fedoraoffered a 1935 Bank of Toronto $20 bill with trainimage in fair-good condition for $600. ''The booklists it as $3,000. In mint condition it could fetch$6,000."

Fedora also offered a 1929 Bank of Toronto notefor $450 and a rarer 1909 Dominion Bank note for$3,500. Also popular with collectors to his boothare 1935 $20 bills with portraits of the young QueenElizabeth IT when she was only nine years old andjust a Princess. "They want to see her picture,"Fedora said. He asks up to $2,500 for such a bill."They sell really well."

Calgary, Alberta dealer Robert Kokotailo alsooffered high-end coins and numismatic antiquitieslike the classic owl-image coin, circa 600 BC, ''whencoins came into being somewhere around there." Itwas $3,500. But his horse-head coin, smaller eventhan a shirt button and costing $1,295, came with acautionary tale for numismatists: recently acquired,the coin fell to the floor and was buried within thepile of Kokotailo's brown carpet. He took two hoursto find it next to his carpet sweeper. Whew!

Kokotailo also offered paper money. One clientflipped quickly through a roll of his bills like theywere postcards. Bella Chang Fong, wife of Torontodealer Ian Marshall, would have found a use forthem. Trained in bookbinding and origami (theJapanese art of folding paper into recognizableshapes), Fong spent time before the show openedcreating, from mostly old American bills, meticu-lously detailed shirts with ties of various sizes andpriced accordingly. Her larger ones were $30 each.

"It depends on the time spent doing it," she said."It's the finicky little things you have to do." (Sherecently saw an origami gun on eBay for $7.)

The show, a 'high-energy event, returns to theHyatt Regency June 29 and 30 and this autumn onOctober 26 and 27. For more information, contactBrian Smith at brian@torex.net.

The show's inaugural poster from 1962, showing an admissionprice of fifty cents, with both a show and auction of coins andstamps.

Bookseller Richard Stockley, LaSalle, Quebec, asked $400 forhis Catalogue of the Medals of Scotland, 1884.

Ron Osaduke, Mississauga, Ontario, caters to collectors seek-ing coins and paper money in the lower price range. HisCana-dian trade token, 1813, which served as coinage, was $300,and hisAmerican silver dollar, 1879, with CCmintmark, $150.

Bella Chang Fong's large origami shirts, mostly from old Ameri-can dollar bills, sell for $30 each.

54 THE UPPER CANADIAN ANTIQUE SHOWCASE I theuppercanadian.com

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