Shipwreck Gold, a 1913 Nickel, and 1,700 Years of Empire Headline ANA 2026
The American Numismatic Association will bring one of the hobby’s most ambitious exhibit lineups to Pittsburgh this summer.
The 2026 World’s Fair of Money® will take place August 25-29 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The show will feature historic coins, rare paper money, sunken treasure, elite registry sets, dramatic error coins, and special displays tied to America’s 250th anniversary.
In short, this will not be a routine coin show.
Collectors will see the ANA Money Museum’s famous 1913 Liberty Head nickel. They will also encounter gold from the S.S. Central America, a 1921 Satin Finish Proof Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, short snorter notes linked to World War II, and a new Tyrant Collection exhibit that traces more than 1,700 years of history.
Pittsburgh Gets a Landmark Numismatic Showcase
The 2026 World’s Fair of Money arrives in Pittsburgh during a milestone year. America will mark 250 years of independence. Therefore, the ANA has built several exhibits around liberty, national identity, diplomacy, war, and the changing image of American money.
The bourse floor will also offer the traditional strength of the World’s Fair of Money. Collectors can buy, sell, and trade rare coins, vintage paper money, medals, tokens, gold, and silver. In addition, many numismatic experts will offer informal opinions on old coins and paper money brought in by the public.
Educational programs will round out the week. The schedule includes seminars, Money Talks, free presentations, youth activities, and family-friendly events.
Money Museum Showcase: Liberty, Peace Medals, and a Legendary Double Eagle
The ANA Money Museum Showcase will anchor the exhibit program at Booth 1430.
According to Money Museum Curator Caroline Turco, the showcase will combine “American history, artistry, and numismatic treasures” from the museum’s own holdings with special loans from private collections.
The display will place classic ANA favorites beside new exhibits created for the nation’s 250th anniversary. As a result, visitors can move from ancient silver to American medals, from Liberty’s first appearance on U.S. coinage to one of the great 20th-century gold rarities.
Highlights include Promises in Silver: The Changing Face of Indian Peace Medals in the United States, a joint display with the American Numismatic Society. Indian Peace Medals occupy a complex place in American history. They reflect diplomacy, power, alliance, and broken promises. Therefore, the exhibit should give collectors more than a survey of objects. It should also offer a deeper look at the messages those objects carried.
Another featured display, Athena’s Owls—Icons of Silver, comes courtesy of the Arcadia Collection. The Athenian “owl” silver tetradrachm ranks among the most influential coins ever struck. Its design traveled through trade, war, and commerce. Moreover, its instantly recognizable owl still speaks across more than two millennia.
Liberty for All: America’s Coinage Story in One Theme
The exhibit A Liberty for All will focus on one of the central figures in American numismatics: Liberty.
The United States adopted Liberty for its first national coinage. Since then, artists have reimagined her again and again. Sometimes she appears classical. Sometimes she looks modern. At other times, she reflects the political ideals and artistic styles of her own age.
That changing portrait tells a larger story. It shows how the nation saw itself. It also shows how American coinage carried ideals into daily commerce.
For a semiquincentennial show, few themes fit better.
A 1921 Satin Finish Proof Double Eagle Takes the Stage
One of the most important single coins in the Money Museum Showcase will come from the Brian Hendelson Collection.
The display will include one of only two known examples of the 1921 Satin Finish Proof Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle. The coin ranks among the most extraordinary 20th-century U.S. gold rarities.
The 1921 Double Eagle already holds major collector interest as a scarce regular-issue Saint-Gaudens $20. However, the Satin Finish Proof takes that story into another category. Only two examples have surfaced. Therefore, any public appearance carries weight.
Hendelson will also lend two versions of the Declaration of Independence for display. Their presence adds another layer to the 250th anniversary theme. Together, the Double Eagle and Declaration material connect American money, national ideals, and historical memory in one display.
GreatCollections Brings Silver Commemoratives and Modern Error Coins
GreatCollections, the ANA Official Auctioneer, will present two major displays at Booth 1100.
First, visitors can view the All-Time #1 Silver Commemorative Set of 144 Coins Graded by PCGS with CAC Approval. ANA member Mike Fuljenz assembled the set over 20 years.
Classic silver commemoratives remain one of the most art-rich fields in U.S. numismatics. The series includes designs tied to explorers, expositions, battles, states, cities, and anniversaries. Yet the coins can prove brutally difficult in elite grade. CAC approval adds another layer of selectivity.
As a result, this set should attract both registry collectors and specialists who follow surface quality, originality, and strike.
GreatCollections will also show the Palos Verdes Collection of Error Coins. The collection represents a personal passion project for its owner. Every coin in the display dates to 1972.
The group includes double strikes, off-metals, wrong planchets, off-center strikes, and die caps. Modern errors often show the minting process in motion. Therefore, they can teach collectors as much as they impress them.
A dramatic error coin freezes a mistake at the exact moment metal, die, collar, and press no longer worked in harmony. The Palos Verdes Collection should give visitors a close look at those mechanical failures.
Tyrants of the Golden Horn: 224 Coins and 1,700 Years of History
The Tyrant Collection will return with a new museum-quality exhibit titled Tyrants of the Golden Horn.
The display will feature 224 important coins that represent virtually every Byzantine emperor. The coins come from the world-renowned Tyrant Collection, widely described as the most valuable private coin collection in the world.
The exhibit begins with a gold aureus of Diocletian struck in A.D. 290 at Cyzicus, in modern Turkey. It ends with a 1943 Turkish 500 kurush. Between those two pieces sits more than 1,700 years of numismatic history.
That sweep gives the exhibit its power.
The Golden Horn is the horn-shaped natural waterway and primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. For centuries, it served as the principal harbor for trade ships in Byzantium, Constantinople, and later the Ottoman Empire. So the exhibit title does more than sound dramatic. It ties the coins to the waterway that helped make Constantinople one of history’s great imperial capitals.
Dan O’Dowd, owner of the Tyrant Collection, said the display covers coins of the emperors and sultans who ruled Constantinople from its founding by Constantine the Great in 324 to the abolishment of the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922.
Visitors can view the exhibit at Booth 1330, next to the Money Museum Showcase.
Mezezius and Helena Add Human Drama to the Tyrant Display
Several individual pieces should command special attention.
One highlight is a solidus of Mezezius, dated A.D. 668-669 and graded PCGS MS66. ANA describes the coin as the finest of only seven known examples.
Mezezius ruled briefly after the assassination of Constans II in Sicily. His coinage survives in tiny numbers. Therefore, a high-grade solidus of this usurper gives collectors a rare look at a violent and unstable moment in Byzantine history.
Another highlight depicts Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. Helena remains one of the most important women in late Roman and early Christian history. Her appearance on a gold solidus gives the exhibit a human anchor. It also reminds visitors that ancient coins often carried dynastic messages as clearly as they carried monetary value.
The Short Snorter Project Brings James Stewart to the Bourse
The nonprofit Short Snorter Project will display a major group of signed banknotes at Booth 96, near the collector exhibits.
Short snorters are banknotes signed by people who traveled or served together. The tradition grew from aviation culture and became especially popular during World War II. Many surviving examples carry the signatures of generals, admirals, diplomats, presidents, prime ministers, and other historic figures.
The Short Snorter Project exhibit includes more than 1,300 signatures.
However, one note will likely draw special attention. Project founder Tom Sparks will display a rare, and possibly unique, short snorter signed by actor James “Jimmy” Stewart.
Stewart signed the note while serving in the 8th Air Force in the United Kingdom. At the time, he served at RAF Old Buckenham as Group Operations Officer of the 453rd Bomb Group.
“In my 20-plus years of collecting, I have not seen another short snorter signed by James Stewart,” Sparks said.
Sparks plans to donate the note to the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
From Oscar Winner to Combat Pilot
The Stewart connection adds real emotional weight.
In 1941, Stewart enlisted during World War II after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Philadelphia Story. He became a combat pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps and flew 20 missions over Europe. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of colonel.
After the war, Stewart returned to film. Soon after, he portrayed George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life.
The Jimmy Stewart Museum currently features The Making of JIMMY, a special exhibit tied to the upcoming feature film JIMMY. The museum display includes costumes, props, memorable quotes, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes footage. It will remain on display through November 15, 2026.
That timing gives the ANA exhibit added relevance for Pittsburgh-area visitors. The convention and museum together create a rare bridge between numismatics, wartime service, and American film history.
The S.S. Central America: A Time Capsule From the Deep
The World’s Fair of Money will also feature a member exhibit devoted to the S.S. Central America.
Known as the “Ship of Gold,” the sidewheel steamship sank in a hurricane on September 12, 1857. It carried gold from Gold Rush California on its way to the East Coast. The loss became one of the most famous maritime disasters in American history.
The exhibit will present treasure, artifacts, and scientific material recovered during expeditions to the wreck. Visitors can see gold, personal artifacts, and clothing found in passenger luggage. They can also view 3D photographs of the treasure as it appeared when explorers first located the wreck in 1988.
The wreck lay about 7,200 feet deep in the Atlantic, roughly 150 miles off the Carolina coast.
Why the “Small Change” Matters
The S.S. Central America became famous for gold ingots and thousands of Mint State Double Eagles. Yet the smaller coins from the debris field tell an equally revealing story.
Passengers carried pocket change. Some of it included foreign coins. That detail matters because the ship sank in the same year as the Coinage Act of 1857.
The Act ended the legal tender status of foreign coins in the United States. It also marked a turning point in American commerce. Then, only a few years later, the Civil War brought even greater monetary upheaval.
Because of that timing, the S.S. Central America treasure works like a sealed time capsule. It captures American money at the edge of a major transition.
The “Ship of Gold” exhibit will appear at Booth 600.
Show Details for Collectors and Families
The 2026 World’s Fair of Money will take place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, located at 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Current ANA show hours are:
- Tuesday, August 25: 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
- Wednesday-Friday, August 26-28: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
- Saturday, August 29: 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Admission costs $10 per day or $25 for a weekly pass. ANA members and children under 12 receive free admission. Admission is free for everyone on Saturday, August 29.
The ANA will also offer educational seminars, free presentations, Money Talks, and youth programming. In addition, the bourse floor will include hundreds of dealers from the United States and abroad.
Why This Lineup Matters
The 2026 Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Money does more than gather rare objects.
It tells several stories at once.
A 1913 Liberty Head nickel points to mystery and legend. A 1921 Satin Finish Proof Double Eagle shows how a modern discovery can rewrite a great U.S. gold series. Indian Peace Medals bring diplomacy and national identity into focus. Athenian owls connect the show to the ancient Mediterranean. Byzantine and Ottoman coins from the Tyrant Collection stretch the timeline across empires. Meanwhile, the S.S. Central America links numismatics to disaster, survival, and the Gold Rush economy.
That range gives the show its “wow” factor.
Collectors do not often get to stand within a few steps of so much history. In Pittsburgh, they will.
