Slab Collectors Society
ANA Member Club Gatherings, 2026–One meeting - so far - at the 2026 ANA World's Fair of Money.
Sample Slab Collector
Precursor Gatherings, 2016–2025Long before there was a Slab Collectors Society, there were the meetings — informal, word‑of‑mouth (Birds of A Feather) gatherings of sample slab collectors held on the sidelines of coin shows. Every account below is drawn from David Schwager's Sample Slab Update newsletter, archived at the Newman Numismatic Portal.
Nine meetings are on record — mostly at the ANA World's Fair of Money, with one detour to a Winter FUN show. The series wasn't held every year, and a multi‑year gap in the newsletter itself means four of these meetings were only documented well after the fact.
Meeting by meeting
Anaheim, California
Lobby, Hilton Anaheim — ANA World's Fair of MoneySeven sample slab collectors held an informal meeting on the evening of Wednesday, August 10, 2016, next to the Anaheim Convention Center. Organizer David Schwager called it "probably the largest gathering of sample slab collectors so far," giving attendees a rare chance to compare samples, talk market, and finally meet in person collectors previously known only from web forums and email. No commemorative token was produced. This is counted as the first meeting in the series.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #13, August 2016
Denver, Colorado
Dazbog Coffee, Colorado Convention Center — ANA World's Fair of MoneyFor the second year running, collectors met at the ANA convention, this time over coffee inside the Colorado Convention Center. Seven attendees discussed their collections, recent finds, the sample market, and possible updates to the reference book on sample slabs. Organizers also began weighing whether to register the group as an official ANA member club ahead of the 2018 Philadelphia convention. No token was produced.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #21, August 2017
Rosemont (Chicago suburbs), Illinois Documented later
Lobby, Hyatt Rosemont — ANA World's Fair of MoneyNo meeting was held in 2018, but the series resumed on August 16, 2019, with a gathering in the lobby of the Hyatt Rosemont. No commemorative gift was produced. Because the newsletter itself went on hiatus from mid‑2019 through the end of 2023, this meeting went unreported at the time and only came to light in a retrospective history published years later.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #33, January 2024 (retrospective)
Rosemont (Chicago suburbs), Illinois Documented later
Lobby, Hyatt Rosemont — ANA World's Fair of MoneyThe group reconvened after the COVID‑19 disruption of 2020, again in the lobby of the Hyatt Rosemont. This meeting introduced a new tradition: a commemorative homemade sample slab — a Coin World holder housing a no‑date Buffalo nickel counterstamped "SS21" — with 20 produced. Like meeting 3, it was only documented once the newsletter resumed publication.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #33, January 2024 (retrospective)
Rosemont (Chicago suburbs), Illinois Documented later
Lobby, Hyatt Rosemont — ANA World's Fair of MoneyCollectors again met in the Hyatt Rosemont lobby. The commemorative token was an ANACS slab pedigreed to "The Slab King" and containing a Wheat cent; 100 were produced, though one was later discovered to accidentally hold a steel cent instead of the intended copper Wheat cent.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #33, January 2024 (retrospective)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Documented later
Lobby, Westin Convention Center — ANA World's Fair of MoneyThe sixth meeting took place in the lobby of the Westin Convention Center. The token was an NGC slab holding a 1976 Eisenhower dollar; of the 30 produced, all were later found to carry a labeling error identifying the coins as Denver‑minted ("D") when they were actually Philadelphia ("P") strikes.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #33, January 2024 (retrospective)
Orlando, Florida
"Rocks" bar, Hyatt Regency Orlando — Winter FUNBreaking from the usual summer ANA schedule, the seventh meeting was held at the Winter FUN (Florida United Numismatists) show. Attendees received a commemorative NGC slab containing a 2018 Egypt one‑pound coin, with 50 produced. Unlike meetings 3–6, this one was reported contemporaneously — in the same issue that marked the newsletter's return after its multi‑year hiatus, which also carried the retrospective history of meetings 1–6.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #33, January 2024
Rosemont (Chicago suburbs), Illinois
Lobby, Hyatt Regency O'Hare — ANA World's Fair of Money24 collectors — the largest turnout in the series to date — gathered in the Hyatt Regency O'Hare lobby. The crowd overflowed the lobby bar, prompting the hotel to open a conference room for the group. Distinguished guests included Coin World writer and podcaster Jeff Starck. Attendees traded pieces, showed off their collections, and received a commemorative holder featuring a Great Britain sixpence dated 1937–1946.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #37, August 2024
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Lobby, Omni Hotel — ANA World's Fair of MoneyHeld Thursday, August 21, 2025, at 6:00 pm near the convention center. The highlight was co‑author Burton Strauss announcing the release of the third edition of the Sample Slabs book, bringing pre‑production copies for attendees to examine and answering their questions. The gathering otherwise followed the group's established format of show‑and‑tell, socializing, and trading, with commemorative holders provided courtesy of NGC. Organizers also floated forming an official ANA club — tentatively "the Slab Collector Society" or similar — to secure meeting space and program listings at future conventions.
Sample Slab Update, Issue #43, August 2025
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
David L. Lawrence Convention Center - ANA World's Fair of MoneyThis time, we had filed paperwork with the American Numismatic Association to become an official ANA member club: The Slab Collectors Society. This gave us a place on the convention program and a meeting room in the convention center.
Eighteen people gathered in the most organized Birds of a Feather meeting to date. Burton and David went over book progress and received pledges of support for research. Show and tell, trading, and socializing were the main attractions. Each attendee received an NGC sample pedigreed to the event and holding an America 250 half dollar.
A note on completeness
Meetings were skipped in 2018 and 2020 — no gathering was reported for either year. Meetings 3 through 6 (2019, 2021–2023) were not covered contemporaneously, owing to the newsletter's mid‑2019–2023 publication hiatus, and are known only from the retrospective published in Issue #33.