This Wednesday morning I hit the road about 8am, making one stop for (expensive) gas and another at the warehouse of Wizard Coin Supply, where owner Wayne Herndon had waiting for me a group of exhibit cases and other supplies PAN President Tom Uram had ordered. I'd volunteered to bring them up for the show, and I managed to cram them into my car along with my luggage and a box of archival material belonging to the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society.

On arriving in Monroeville I went straight to the Convention Center loading dock where we unloaded the PAN materials. Then I grabbed a late lunch and checked into the Doubletree. The rest of the day was my mini-vacation time, and I spent it researching family history at a suburban Pittsburgh cemetery. After a false start - a misreading of a map put me in the wrong section - I discovered the family plot purchased in 1909 by my great-grandfather John Homren. He'd been born in Sweden in 1843 and passed away in 1925. He's interred here with his wife Henrietta, a son and two daughters. A fourth son, my grandfather Olaf, is in a city cemetery with my grandmother and father. Later on this visit I also photographed the homes where two sets of my great-grandparents had lived.

Books, Books, Books
Arriving at the show Thursday I quickly ran into WPNS President Corleen Chesonis and club archivist Mike Drabick and made arrangements for returning materials to the club. The batch I had with me was not going to be scanned by the Newman Numismatic Portal. Five more boxes are in St. Louis now being digitized and will be shipped back to the club once complete.

PAN 2022-05 Cunningham table Lincoln's Metallic Imagery2

My next stops included the tables of David Kahn Rare Coins and Paul Cunningham. At DKRC I spoke with Melissa Kahn and took a photo of the books in one of their cases. At Paul's table I spoke with WPNS members Rich Crosby and Dick Gaetano and photographed Paul's book on Lincoln material.

At the DKRC table a guard told me that taking photos wasn't permitted. I stopped, but later spoke with PAN officers Tom Uram and Pat McBride about getting a "press pass". They said they'd talk to the front desk staff. Photos are vital for show publicity and articles like these, but I get the security aspect: "Hey Vito, you wanna buy these coins? They're gonna fall off a truck later..."

Later I took these shots from the back of the hall. You need a panorama to capture the whole show in one shot! PAN gets bigger and better every year.

Hidden Gems of the Newman Portal
At 2pm Thursday I gave a presentation which was filmed by David Lisot. My subject was "Hidden Gems of the Newman Portal"

Here's one pro tip - click the link at the top of the viewer to go to the Internet Archive back end, where you can download the content in multiple file formats, including the Kindle book reader.

Old and New Friends
On Friday morning I walked the bourse floor a bit and ran into Clifford Mishler. I thanked him for his help getting Krause Publications periodicals like Numismatic News and Coins digitized on the Newman Portal. On his trip to Pittsburgh he'd stopped to visit with my good friends Joel Orosz and Len Augsburger, the NNP Project Coordinator.

I also ran into my old WPNS friend and mentor Larry Korchnak. A couple items that caught my eye in his cases were a booklike display box of Napoleonic medals, and an uncut sheet of merchant scrip.

I thought I recognized his table neighbor so I introduced myself. It was none other than Matt Tavory of World Coins of South Florida, the young dealer who was recently profiled on National Public Radio. He wasn't sure what I was talking about when I said that must be his favorite shirt, but then he realized he'd been wearing it when photographed for the NPR piece. A true Buccaneers fan.

Here's a great shot of Larry and Matt, who bonded over their common love of siege coins. Matt had some nice pieces in his case for sale.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COIN COLLECTING BUSINESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n19a14.html)

Civil War Showcase
At 11am Friday I gave a short talk at the Civil War Showcase run by Rick Lank and Becky Rush. I spoke about discovering U.S. fractional currency via a note my grandfather had stored with a box of old coins, then learning about Civil War numismatics in the Foreword to Matt Rothert's little Whitman Black Book on Fractional Currency.

My only visual aid was a picture of the highlight of my encased postage collection, a Sands Ale 5 cents. Afterwards I spoke with some E-Sylum readers including Bill Brenner and Bill Bierly.

I had to head home Friday afternoon, so I missed a lot of the great programming at the showcase. But I had time to take photos of some of the exhibit cases.

Love that carte de viste!

I wish I could have stayed longer, but at least I did have time to talk briefly with several people, including Chick Ambrass, Ed Krivoniak, Pat McBride, Jerry Krupa, Byron Weston, Al Stricker, Al Boulanger, Pat Vetter, Simcha Kuritzky and others.

As I noted, the PAN show keeps getting bigger and better, attracting big crowds and dealers from across the country. Plan now for the Fall show October 20-22, 2022. Don't tell me you can't remember those dates!

For more information on PAN, see:
https://pancoins.org/

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
PAN CIVIL WAR SHOWCASE UPDATE(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n19a10.html)