The American Numismatic Association is putting out the call to the numismatic community's sharpest minds. Submissions are now open for the Maynard Sundman/Littleton Coin Company Lecture Series, the flagship scholarly program tied to the 2026 World's Fair of Money — set for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August 2026.
For researchers, specialists, and serious collectors who have been sitting on a thesis, a die study, or a market analysis worth sharing, this is the venue that matters most.
What the Lecture Series Actually Represents
The Sundman Lecture Series isn't a hobbyist show-and-tell. It is the ANA's most rigorous public scholarship platform — named for Maynard Sundman, the founder of Littleton Coin Company, whose decades of support helped professionalize numismatic education in the United States. Presentations accepted into the series appear alongside some of the most consequential coin scholarship produced in any given year.
Past lecture cycles have covered everything from die variety attribution on early American copper to the economics of modern bullion market manipulation. The range is intentional. The ANA has historically used the series to signal that numismatics is a discipline — not just a hobby — and Pittsburgh 2026 will be no different.
The World's Fair of Money itself is the ANA's annual national convention, the largest numismatic show in the country by most measures. Attendance typically draws thousands of collectors, dealers, and institutional buyers across a multi-day run. Heritage Auctions, Stack's Bowers, and other major houses anchor their summer auction calendars around the event. Floor traffic at a strong World's Fair can rival or exceed major card and memorabilia shows in terms of transaction volume, just denominated in coins, currency, and medals rather than cardboard.
Pittsburgh as a Convention Market
The choice of Pittsburgh for 2026 is worth examining. The city has emerged as a legitimate convention destination over the past decade, with the David L. Lawrence Convention Center offering the floor space and infrastructure that a show of this scale demands. For mid-Atlantic and Rust Belt collectors, it cuts travel costs significantly compared to Las Vegas or Chicago venues — which tends to broaden the dealer base and drive stronger floor attendance from regional buyers who might otherwise skip the trip.
A geographically accessible World's Fair historically correlates with stronger auction results. When the collector pool on the floor is deeper and more regionally diverse, bidding competition increases across mid-tier material — the $500 to $5,000 range that drives volume even if it doesn't generate the headline lots. Pittsburgh should deliver that dynamic.
How to Submit — and Why Serious Collectors Should Consider It
The ANA is soliciting proposals from researchers and collectors at all levels. This is not a credentialed-academics-only program. Some of the most influential presentations in the series' history have come from advanced hobbyists who spent years developing expertise in a narrow specialty — a specific mint, a particular series, a documented provenance chain on a famous rarity.
If you have done the work, the ANA wants to hear from you. Proposals should reflect original research or synthesis that advances the field's understanding of a topic. Reprising well-trodden ground won't clear the selection committee.
The practical upside for accepted speakers extends beyond the podium. Presenting at the World's Fair of Money places your name and research in front of the dealers, auction house specialists, and institutional collectors who will be in that room — people whose networks and market access can meaningfully affect a researcher's trajectory in the hobby. It is, in the most straightforward sense, the best professional development opportunity numismatics offers on an annual basis.
Submission details are available directly through the ANA. The August 2026 convention date gives prospective speakers roughly 18 months to develop and refine a proposal — enough runway to do the research properly rather than rush something into shape.
Eighteen months. No excuse not to start now.