There’s treasure in talks

One good treasure hunt deserves another?

Attendees of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists Fall Coin Show and Convention will find out at 3 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Monroeville, Pa., Convention Center.

That’s when Bob Evans, the chief scientist and historian of the S.S. Central America project, will present a talk, according to convention organizers.

During the summer Evans has been at sea at the site of the wreck aboard the Odyssey Explorer in its follow-up exploration of the ship, which sank in a hurricane in 1857 off the Carolina coast.

Whether there are untold riches yet to be found will be one of the many questions convention-goers will have.

Evans will also have relics from the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet and Black Sam Bellamy’s pirate’s ship, the Whydah.

But that’s just an hour of time during a three-day convention event.

An active bourse is also promised with public hours noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 23, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 25.

Visit http://www.PANcoins.org for more information.

Talks of this kind are more important than many of us realize. I include myself in that statement.

In nearly four decades of covering coin shows, there have been many talks that I have told myself I was too busy to attend. So I didn’t.

As much as I had logic on my side at the time each decision was made, I find that it is the talks that I made time to attend that I remember and whatever I was doing in justification of skipping a talk I have forgotten.

Numismatic speakers provide enormously helpful and interesting information that can make us better collectors, but they cannot help those of us who skip out on them.

If you plan to be at PAN, attend Evan’s talk.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2014 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."