WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: 2026 ANA, PART 3

This segment discuses my time at the Pittsburgh ANA on Thursday, August 27th. I was working in my room again for the morning and missed a couple more meetings and talks. My first event was the Numismatic Bibliomania Society Board Meeting at 11:30, where I gave a report on The E-Sylum, touching on subscriber counts, advertising revenue, metrics (people really do click on the sponsor banners), and our use of artificial intelligence to assist with preparing the issue - not to write articles, but to gather text and images from webpages, crop images, and streamline formatting.

Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG) Luncheon
I ducked out of the NBS Board meeting to get across the street to the Numismatic Literary Guild Awards Luncheon at the Westin Hotel. Arriving late I spoke briefly with Jeff Rock and Julia Casey before finding an open seat at another table between ANA Numismatist Editor Caleb Noel and ANS Executive Director Dr. Ute Wartenberg Kagin.

Luckily, it wasn't too late to get served a tasty and filling lunch while a number of awards were given out. The event went very smoothly. NBS itself didn't take home a plaque this year, but I picked up a plaque on behalf of one prominent NBS personality (David Fanning) and photographed a plaque for another (Joel Orosz).

NLG Awards for David Fanning and Joel Orosz

Jerry Jordan shared these photos of the bursting-at-the-seams event.

1933 Double Eagle Panel
Every ANA has lots of highlights, and one that sticks out for me was sitting in the front row with Len Augsburger for the panel session at the U.S. Mint booth on the 1933 Double Eagle. The next day the Mint would unveil an exhibit of eleven of the ultra rare and controversial coins. Kudos to the Mint for sponsoring the session, with was recorded by the Newman Numismatic Portal.

LEFT: Lianna Spurrier sets up recording equipment
RIGHT: Mint Director Paul Hollis making initial remarks

Crowd shots

Panelists Stephen Fenton, Greg Weinman, David Tripp

Julian Leidman with photo of an example he'd handled

It was a memorable event, and everyone should watch the video once it's available. The Mint deserves credit for hosting the event and allowing Leidman and Fenton to express opinions not entirely in line with the Mint's position. And is the story over - or are there more examples of the coin yet to come to light?

The Massive Bourse Floor
While on my way to the ANA Awards event in the convention center ballroom, I snapped these shots of the bourse from the skybridge. It was a huge event, with never enough time to experience it all.

Exhibit Area in yellow at upper left

A view of the other side

ANA Awards
The ANA Awards event was another large affair. I wanted to see my old friend and former NBS officer Dave Hirt of Maryland get his 50-year membership pin.

Dave Hirt and others get 50-year membership pins

ANA 2026-08-27 Awards membership pins John Zebel, Dave Hirt, Robert Van Ryzin, Judy Schwan

After a quick pass through the bourse floor I returned again to my hotel for another change of clothes and a nice walk across town with Tom Harrison and Jeff Dickerson. We were heading to the Grand Concourse Restaurant at Station Square, a refurbished train station on the South Side. It was for a dinner of the Attinelli Followship of numismatic bibliophiles. A great time was had by all, and the walk there and back brought my step count for the day up to 18,984. Whew!

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY: 2026 ANA, PART 1 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n35a16.html)

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