In recognition of his long-term contributions to the hobby, Florida coin dealer, auction cataloger, gold expert and author David W. Akers will receive the American Numismatic Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the fall National Money Show in Pittsburgh in October.

Akers is well known for cataloging and selling the U.S. and world gold, silver and copper coins in the John Jay Pittman Collection Jr. in three different auctions in the late 1990s. Sales of the coins ultimately realized $30 million. Two of Akers’ catalogs for those auctions received the Numismatic Literary Guild’s Catalogue of the Year Award.

He also has authored eight books on U.S. gold coins, including a reference to U.S. gold pattern pieces and a massive, multi-volume work on auction appearances of gold coins by denomination.

Akers started collecting in 1949 and became a professional coin dealer in 1971. An ANA life member, he joined the ANA in 1972 and also is a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (which he served as director from 1979 to 1981), Florida United Numismatists and Central States Numismatic Society.

He is one of only two coin dealers to receive the Professional Numismatists Guild’s three top honors: the Robert Friedberg Literary Award, the Abe Kosoff Founders Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. ¦