Silk crossed the mountains.
Stories crossed with it.
At Minted MNL’s Year-End Show media preview, guest artist Ms. Misty handed us hard-tip brush pens and worksheets. The rule sounded simple enough. Hold the pen at a 45-degree angle, ease up on the upstroke, and press harder on the downstroke. Then try to make the next stroke look like the last one. That’s the part that took practice.
We had three index cards for our final pieces and colored pencils if we wanted to dress them up. We could write a name, a proverb, or even a Christmas note. I chose two lines about silk. There was a gift pack for the best piece, but by then I was mostly thinking about how to keep my downstrokes from getting thicker with every letter.
That workshop was a preview of the Minted MNL 2026 Year-End Show on November 21 and 22 at The Westin Manila Hotel in Mandaluyong City. The official theme, “Silk Road: The Exchange That Shaped the World,” draws on the network of land and sea routes that carried silk, spices, porcelain, and precious metals between distant markets. At the places where merchants stopped, people picked up ideas, languages, and traditions along with the goods they traded.
The organizers put the connection to collecting neatly at the briefing. “Trade connected cultures across the world, and collecting carries them through time.”
More than 100,000 collectibles under one roof
Minted MNL says the two-day show will bring together more than 70 exhibitors and over 100,000 collectibles, from ancient coins and historic banknotes to modern trading cards, comics, toys, and pop culture memorabilia. At the briefing, organizers walked us through the floor plan, which includes a marketplace for buying and selling, a corner for private collections, and areas for international grading and authentication services. International auction houses will also be represented.
My usual hunts take me straight to the Hot Wheels pegs. But I can see myself detouring to the private collections. I’d want to ask the person who put a display together which piece they found first and which one took the longest to track down. You learn a lot about a collection from those two answers.
There’s also a reason to dress up. Exhibitors are invited to go Merchant Chic, while guests can wear Silk Road Chic, with flowing fabrics and rich textures among the suggestions. There will be Best Dressed awards on both days for exhibitors and guests, including the kids in the Little Explorers categories.
John Ulgado will give a talk on the history of paper currency, and a panel will take up trading cards. The Curiosity Corner has versions for children and adults, with activities that send guests around the floor to discover items and meet exhibitors. Adults can try brush calligraphy, while kids get a guided acrylic painting workshop. The organizers also previewed a small sponsor marketplace for media guests, with a larger version planned for the show.
Among the sponsors and partners acknowledged at the briefing were the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Royal Canadian Mint, and Heritage Auctions.
The date on the back
When I interviewed Minted MNL founder Sigrid Clarin Carandang for BusinessMirror earlier this year, she told me she’d started collecting at three. Coins, banknotes, medals, stamps, and comics were her “little treasures.” She founded Minted MNL in Manila in 2016. Ten years later, you can bring in a piece to learn whether it’s genuine or how well it has held up, then sit down for a talk about the history printed on it.
I thought back to the March Summer Show, when I wrote about an original photograph of José Rizal in his European overcoat and a certificate Emilio Aguinaldo signed in 1899, days before Tarlac fell during the Philippine-American War. A date on a piece of paper can look like the least interesting detail until you know what happened a few days later.
My index card has a much smaller story. Still, I’d put the date on the back. If somebody finds it tucked inside a book years from now, they’ll know when I sat down with a brush pen and found out how long it could take to write eight words.
When and where
November 21–22, 2026, at The Westin Manila Hotel in Mandaluyong City. Minted MNL
