My Takeaways from the 2026 ANA World’s Fair of Money
I knew this ANA might be different before I ever got to Pittsburgh.
I arrived Monday afternoon aboard the Capstone company jet—Southwest Airlines—with a connection through Chicago. During my layover, I spotted some familiar faces. Actually, they spotted me. A few fellow dealers waved me down and, almost immediately, the questions started.
“What did you bring?”
“Anything good?”
“What are you selling?”
Of course, this all comes after the obligatory bro hugs and handshakes.
And just like that, another ANA World’s Fair of Money had begun.
For those outside the business, the ANA is difficult to explain. It’s a coin show, certainly, but calling it that doesn’t quite do it justice. For one week, many of the best dealers, collectors and numismatists from around the world descend on one city. This year it was Pittsburgh.
The rumor circulating among dealers was roughly 600 tables on a sold-out bourse floor. Whatever the final number turns out to be, it was big.
For me, it was also ANA number 28 in a row—after my college years.
And ANA week isn’t exactly a vacation.
Before I left Austin, my calendar already looked ridiculous. Lunches. Client dinners. Dealer dinners. Happy hours with longtime customers that ended just in time for me to hustle across town to another dinner. The IAPN kickoff cocktail party gave me a chance to catch up with my newer colleagues from four other continents.
Then there is the actual business of buying and selling coins.
That begins early.
Every morning you’re meeting dealers who have texted or called asking you to come look at something. Five minutes later, you’re showing them your coins. Someone stops you walking down an aisle. Another dealer has something behind his table he thinks you’ll like. You buy a coin. Sell three. Walk two rows and buy another.
Then you do it again.
And again.
By the end of the week, you know exactly what kind of market you’re in.
This was the best show I’ve had all year.
I came to Pittsburgh with five boxes.
Raw Morgan Dollars in tubes and flips. Certified U.S. gold and silver. Ancient coins. World coins. Shipwreck gold.
I came home with three boxes—and I was trying hard all week to replenish what I had sold.
By Thursday and Friday, something funny started happening. Dealers weren’t always eager to show you their new purchases anymore.
Why?
Because they needed something to take home.
That’s a good problem for a coin dealer to have.
And it wasn’t confined to one corner of numismatics.
U.S. coins were strong. Gold was strong. Silver was strong. World coins were strong. Ancients were strong.
Perhaps most importantly, nobody seemed particularly interested in talking about what bullion had done that morning.
For the last several years, precious-metal prices have had a way of dominating conversations. Gold is up. Silver is down. Gold hits another high. What’s the Fed doing?
In Pittsburgh, people wanted to talk about coins.
That’s an important distinction.
I heard an early attendance figure of more than 2,000 people for the week, although I haven’t seen the ANA publish its final number yet. Whatever that number ultimately is, the public wasn’t simply wandering around looking through cases.
They were buying.
Collectors came prepared. Cash. Checkbooks. Want lists.
People stopped at my table to introduce themselves, ask questions and buy coins for their collections. I met several new customers through referrals from fellow dealers.
And something else caught my attention.
We’re seeing new buyers enter the rare coin market.
Not just buyers looking for inexpensive coins, either.
I’ve been doing this a long time, and I can’t remember many shows where I sold multiple five-figure coins seemingly every day.
At times, it almost felt too easy.
A few rows behind my table was another reminder of why the ANA remains special.
The United States Mint brought together all 11 government-owned 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles for the first time. There were lines to see coins that have become almost mythical in American numismatics. Nearby, collectors patiently waited to exchange cash for newly released circulating coins and Mint products.
Think about that for a second.
In one direction, collectors were lining up to see some of the most famous multimillion-dollar American coins ever struck.
In another, they were lining up to buy brand-new coins at face value.
That is the hobby.
A multimillion-dollar rarity can fascinate the same person who gets excited about putting a newly issued dollar into his pocket.
PCGS also brought something extraordinary to Pittsburgh: Dan O’Dowd’s magnificent Tyrants of the Golden Horn Collection. The display told more than 1,700 years of history through extraordinary gold coins of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman worlds.
For those of us who love Ancient and World coins, there was another development that could prove even more significant.
O’Dowd became the first major collector to have his ancient coins certified by PCGS as the company moves into Ancient Coin grading. PCGS is bringing its familiar Sheldon 1-to-70 numerical grading philosophy into a field that historically has operated very differently.
As someone who actively buys and sells Ancients, I’m very interested to see where this goes.
Exciting times.
But when I think back on Pittsburgh, the great exhibits aren’t what I’ll remember most.
I’ll remember the trading.
I’ll remember opening those five boxes Monday and watching them get progressively lighter.
I’ll remember dealers chasing coins down the aisles.
I’ll remember collectors arriving ready to buy.
I’ll remember friends telling me late in the week that they didn’t want to sell me what they’d just purchased because their cases were already getting thin.
After 28 consecutive ANAs, you develop a pretty good feel for the room.
Sometimes the market feels tentative. Sometimes everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to make the first move.
Pittsburgh wasn’t like that.
There was confidence in the room.
There was money in the room.
More importantly, there were collectors in the room.
Good coins found buyers. Great coins found buyers quickly. Five-figure coins changed hands without the hesitation I’ve seen in other markets. And the strength crossed categories—from classic U.S. material and Morgan Dollars to World coins, Ancients and shipwreck gold.
I went to Pittsburgh hoping for a good show.
I came home convinced of something bigger.
The rare coin market isn’t simply holding up. It’s expanding. New collectors are entering it, established collectors are competing for quality, and dealers are having trouble replacing the good material they’re selling.
If Pittsburgh was any indication of where we’re headed next, these are exciting times to be a numismatist.
And yes, I’ll be back next year.
Hopefully with 10 boxes.
— Michael Gonzalez
Capstone Acquisitions, LP
PNG • IAP