For the first time ever the Summer 2025 American Numismatic Association’s (“ANA”) World’s Fair of Money show was held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from August 19th-23rd. For those readers unfamiliar with Oklahoma City, it has a population of a little over 700,000 and is located alongside the infamous Route 66 in the southern part of America’s Midwestern region. Oklahoma City is home to the reigning NBA world basketball champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and for food the region is best known for its delicious barbeque. Because the ANA had never been held in Oklahoma City before and due its smaller population market than most traditional ANA host cities, many dealers were curious to see how this show would turn out. I am pleased to report that the Oklahoma City Summer ANA show exceeded everyone’s expectations and many regular dealers told me that this was their “best show” ever (including for yours truly). This speaks highly of how strong the coin and numismatic market is right now. With pending U.S. tariffs and continued international political uncertainty, we continue to see a surge for precious metals with gold at record highs and silver at near-record highs around the world. This “perfect storm” for precious metals continues to drive our numismatic industry to new heights and the success of the 2025 Oklahoma City Summer ANA show is a testament to that as we head into the Fall of 2025.
The Oklahoma City ANA show drew an attendance that exceeded over 8,000 collectors, around 500 dealers, and numerous mints from around the globe. Once again, I set up for the Summer ANA show with Rick Stelzer, my business partners at Vintage Collectibles Group out of Sarasota, Florida, Michael Chou, President of Champion Auction Macau, and Philip Kapaan, a world coin dealer at Kapaan and Mades GbR located in Bochum, Germany. Along with precious metals, sales of vintage and key date U.S. type coins continue to do well. As for U.S. currency and foreign currency, many notes under $200 (U.S. dollars) were bought up as inventory by other dealers doing online auctions, again reflecting strong market sales in the overall numismatic industry. For international coins, vintage Chinese gold, silver and bronze coins continue to do well as do vintage silver and gold coins from Central and South America. I have also seen an increase in demand for more modern foreign gold and silver coins (particularly Chinese Panda coins) due in part to the uncertainty of the pending U.S. tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration.
In addition to all of the buying and selling of coins, currency and other numismatic items, the Oklahoma City Summer ANA Show offered grading service appraisals, educational seminars, auctions, collectors meetings, events for young numismatists, and much more. For younger collectors, Ernie’s Treasure Treehouse made its return. This very popular event is where children in grades K-12 can have fun playing arcade-style games and win fantastic numismatic prizes. A hot exclusive item at this year’s Summer ANA was the Oklahoma City edition of the 2025 Chinese Dragon Silver Bullion coin. This coin was limited to 3,000 pieces, encased in an exclusive Oklahoma City / Route 66 card, and was limited to one for a household, so a big congratulations if you received one. GreatCollections was this year’s ANA Official Auctioneer, and had on display the unique pair of New Orleans Mint 1844 $5 and $10 dollar proof gold coins. This is reportedly the first time the two coins have appeared publicly together, and it is widely believed these coins were struck to commemorate the visiting of a dignitary to the New Orleans mint in 1844. Like all ANA shows, there were numerous informative and educational opportunities available for the public in Oklahoma City. The “Money Talks” presentations were excellent as always and included “Making Small Change in the 18th Century: Coins, William Wood, and the King’s Mistress” presented by Franklin Noel discussing how the Hibernia and Rosa Americana coins came about over 300 hundred years ago as a result of the small change shortage in Ireland and the American colonies This discussion outlined how the Wood’s family owned iron and copper mines were put to use to produce the coins while navigating the politics of England’s first Hanoverian king, George I. Ron Burkard presented “Bolivia’s 19th Century Proclamation Coinage” outlining how during the many Bolivian government changes during this period (both new leaders and new constitutions) were announced to the public through these silver proclamation coins. Kirk Van Brunt gave a presentation on “Road Trip! Collecting theTravelling Coins of Hadrian” who ruled the Roman Empire at its apex and issued many coins that memorialized his vast journeys throughout the Roman Empire during his reign.
This year’s ANA Museum Showcase featured stunning pieces from the ANA’s Edward C. Rochette Money Museum. On display were two of the world’s most valuable rare coins, the McDermott-Bebee 1913 U.S. Liberty Head Nickel and the
Idler-Bebee Type III 1804 U.S. Bust Silver Dollar. The 1913 Liberty Head Nickel is one of five known and the 1804 Bust Silver Dollar is often referred to as the “King of U.S. Coins” with only fifteen known examples. An interesting numismatic fact is that no dollars dated 1804 were actually struck at the U.S. Mint in 1804. In 1804, the U.S. Mint actually struck 1803 dollars, and then ceased regular production of silver dollars until 1840. Three amazing international collections were on display at this year’s Summer ANA show. First, the “Medals of the Renaissance” exhibited a fine selection of 14th to 17th century medals from the revival period in Europe. Next, the “Electrum Coins of Asia Minor” displayed a collection of electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) coins outlining the evolution of electrum coins from simple mid 7th century B.C. designs to modern day masterpieces. Finally, the “First Coins of Mexico” exhibited early Mexican coins struck from 1536 through 1572 at the New World’s first mint in Mexico City. These artistic coins were issued under King Charles I of Spain and his mother, Juana to support colonial trade and reduce reliance of coin production by the Spanish mints.
Oklahoma City proved to be a great host city as the Summer ANA was a huge success. It appears that the numismatic industry will stay on fire for the rest of 2025 as gold and silver pace the way with record highs. Later this November, I look forward to seeing my good friend, Michael Chou, and others at the Macau Numismatic Society (“MNS”) Coin Show. November 26, 2025 will be the opening ceremony for the MNS coin show at the Ponte 16 Hotel in Macau and Enter here details of the Macua Coin Show, details about special Chinese silver dragon coin for the Macua show, details of the Champion Auction with description of highlighted items from the auction…
Until next time, I wish you all the best in your numismatic pursuits, and I hope to see everyone in Macau towards the end of November!