Jeff Garrett: 2026 FUN Show Report

For me and many others, this year’s edition of the 2026 Florida United Numismatists (FUN) convention started on the Sunday preceding the show. For the last several years, the road warriors of the coin show circuit have been showing up earlier and earlier at the host city for major coin shows. The early start is an effort to get first looks at as many dealers' inventories as possible.

Our team arrived Sunday night so we could get the ball rolling first thing Monday morning. By the time we had arrived in Orlando on Sunday, I had heard reports of some dealers getting there on Friday. Pre-show coin dealing is a brutal competition.

In the weeks leading up to the show, most professional coin dealers were bracing themselves in anticipation based on the recently skyrocketing precious metals market. Silver in particular had broken into new record highs and seemed poised for further advances. For many dealers, pricing their inventory to accurately reflect this sudden jump was proving a challenge. My biggest concern would be the cost of replacing coins sold in the next several days.

Monday started early, with appointments set up weeks in advance to show some of our largest buyers our inventory. These “first shots” are based on past performance of buyers. They all know there is pressure to spend, and their next opportunity to have an early shot will depend on how much they buy. Those who look early and only buy a few coins will drop down the list at the next convention. As mentioned above, it is brutally competitive.

For those who give me an early opportunity to buy coins, we make every effort to buy any coin that’s even close. I know these sellers are keeping score just like we are. First shots are super important in the world of wholesale business. The best buys get snapped up in a flash. By the time many of these buyers see two or three dealers, their inventories have been decimated. One thing I hate most is asking to look at a dealer’s coins and being told another dealer just bought most of his coins, but I'm welcome to look anyway.

Our Monday morning appointments did not disappoint. The first three dealers who looked at our coins all spent well into six figures. One dealer spent over $1 million because of a special collection that I had on consignment from a retail customer. I also spent part of Monday looking at other dealers’ coins, but the pickings were slim. Later in the day, I viewed the Heritage Auctions lots, which were filled with amazing rarities, including an 1804 Silver Dollar and an NGC MS 63 1808 Quarter Eagle. I almost forgot to mention the complete set of Stellas!

The 1808 Quarter Eagle graded NGC MS 63

In the past, the FUN Show organization had resisted calls for a dealer day trading room. As mentioned, dealers love to trade coins before the show starts, and in the past the business took place in hotel rooms. It is not the safest thing to do, and after some urging, the FUN Show management agreed to host “Dealer Day” on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, before official setup.

This year, FUN had a nice room setup for dealers on a first come, first serve basis for a small fee. The “Dealer Day” started at 9 a.m. and the room filled up immediately with about 75 to 100 dealers. There was a buzz in the air from start to finish, and I’m sure a lot of these dealers did more business that day than the rest of the show. Many had sold a majority of their inventory before the doors of the official show even opened.

Traditional set-up for the FUN Show is at 2 p.m. on Wednesday of the show. For the last several years, the Professional Numismatists Guild has hosted an educational symposium that is open to all dealers. This year’s edition was focused on numismatic trading via online streaming. Whatnot and eBay Live made interesting presentations to a standing-room-only crowd. This form of selling is having a profound impact on the numismatic marketplace and was a key to activity that would be seen on the bourse floor in the coming days.

By early afternoon, the lobby was filled with hundreds of dealers waiting for the doors to open. The 2026 FUN Show had over 750 dealer tables and the vast bourse floor filled quickly as participants raced to set up. The bourse set-up lasted until 8 p.m., when dealers were forced to stop doing business and leave the room.

The bourse floor at the 2026 FUN Show

The show started again at 8 a.m. on Thursday for dealer set-up; the public was allowed in around noon. The 2026 bourse floor was massive, with every dealer’s booth occupied by dealers with tables or those who had purchased early bird badges. These badges allow collectors and dealers an early chance to buy coins before the public got in.

By around noon, word started to spread on the bourse floor about the MASSIVE numbers of public participants trying to get into the show. There was a line snaking the length of the convention center, which is huge. I have heard that some members of the public had to wait over an hour and a half for their credentials to get in. Based on the line we saw, this was probably not an exaggeration.

The line to get into the convention center for the 2026 FUN Show

Later that afternoon, the bourse was alive with activity, and the aisles were packed with rare coin buyers. Every table had multiple customers elbowing for attention. It was the most active bourse I have ever witnessed, and I have been to every major coin show for more than 50 years. To say the coin show was amazing would be a huge understatement.

Many observers commented that the 2026 FUN Show seemed more like a sports show or Comic-Con convention. Rare coins were finally having their day in the sun! This activity continued throughout the week, and we were selling coins as they were being taken from the showcase late Saturday afternoon. Luckily, we continued to buy coins during the convention and were able to keep the showcases from being empty.

Over the years, many world and ancient dealers have discovered the FUN Show. In the past, the New York International Numismatic Convention conflicted with the FUN Show, and most of those dealers chose to attend the NYINC event. Now, the NYINC is a week later, and those dealers no longer have to make a choice. This year, the ancient and world section was very large, and they all seemed ecstatic with their sales. We were able to buy some amazing ancient coins from a German dealer.

The Certified Collectibles Group (NGC and PMG) created an impressive display for the FUN Show, with information about all of the collectibles categories they certify. I love the comics and other samples they had at their booth. Maybe that's a category of collectibles our company should explore! The NGC booth was slammed with activity from start to finish.

Other large companies also had impressive booths, including an unlikely new entrant into numismatics: Walmart. They were signing up dealers for their online platform that has hundreds of millions of monthly visitors. It will be interesting to see how dealers fare selling on Walmart's online platform.

With a backdrop of soaring gold and silver prices, the 2026 FUN Show was like no other. Katie Williams, the FUN Show convention manager, told me that overall attendance was as follows:

• Public: 11,595
• Early Bird: 477
• Dealers/Staff: 2,075
• Total: 14,147

This broke all records for FUN show attendance going back more than 70 years. Many dealers told me the show was the BEST show they ever had. Our company also set a new sales record for a single show. The FUN Show has long been considered the bellwether event of the year and a sign of things to come. If that is the case, 2026 will be very, very special!

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