May Road Trip Leads to Spring PAN Show

A seven-day mid-May road trip embraced my attendance at this year’s spring Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN) show in Pittsburgh. While I’ve attended a fair number of PAN shows over the years – the organization was established in 1978 – I’d probably not attended one in the past four or five years. What I experienced was an event that has grown substantially since last year’s post-pandemic return; it has become a rock-solid regional event.

The bracketing days on the front end of this outing included participation in a Zoom meeting of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Fund Development Committee, attendance at an evening meeting of the Friends of Scandinavia History, interacting with the local school’s National Honor Society chapter’s “Community Service Day” providing spring cleaning services to the Iola Historical Society (IHS), along with participating in a half-day meeting of the Waupaca County Historical Network group, participating in an ANA board Zoom meeting, and laboring on projects of an Iola Lions Club community service work night.

Then, on the tail end, there was a meeting of the Chet Krause Legacy Park committee, the IHS’ Memorial Day hosting of a “Salute to Veterans” pork roast luncheon in conjunction with the local Sheveland-Taylor Post 14 of the American Legion, providing a free meal to veterans on an ongoing basis since 2014, followed the next evening by May’s monthly IHS meetings. Then, I kicked the month of June off with attendance at the Waukesha Coin Club’s monthly meeting, sharing some hobby perspectives