A sell here sign shown at the Tyler Coin Show at the Ornelas Activity Center on Saturday, August 12, 2023

At the annual coin show in Tyler, attendees browsed coins, bills and metals on Friday and Saturday at the UT Tyler Ornelas Activity Center.

The event is the third largest coin show in Texas, according to Tyler Coin Club President Richard Graham. The show sits in between Oklahoma and Houston, and Shreveport and Dallas and they attract people from those areas.

Attendees walked around the Ornelas Activity Center on Friday and Saturday talking to sellers, looking at coins, bills, bullions, and other metals. Vendors were there for three days — one day for setup and two days for the event.

One seller at the event, who goes by Raven and RavenHawk Coins on YouTube, has two coin shows in Norman, Oklahoma and one in Mustang, Oklahoma. His dad introduced him to coins when he was 5 years old. He finds the coin community to be supportive of each other.

“When I found out how coins have the kind of value they do, and what you can do with them, I was hooked,” Raven said. “It’s a lot of fun, a lot of history.”

Ida Herring, from Quitman, has a YouTube channel also and met Raven through YouTube. She helps raise funds through an auction online for St. Jude’s. She did not have a booth this year at the event but came to hang out with her friends.

Michael Boyer, 45, from Mid America Coins Inc., also met Herring and Raven through YouTube. He has a coin show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They both support each other by going to each other’s coin shows.

“We all get together,” Boyer said. “I go to his show. We come to my show. We all work together. We keep the community going.”

Next year, the coin show will be at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center and Graham expects to double in size. This year they had around 1,000 people come in and 38 tables for vendors.