Lingering health issues have caused numismatist and author John Wexler to retire from his decades-long “Varieties Notebook” column, published in the third issue of Coin World each month since November 1997.

“I appreciate the long run that I was able to have with Coin World,” Wexler said. “The column was devoted to the die varieties found by the Coin World readers and they sure kept me busy.

“I am in the process of quietly selling off my entire collection of die variety coins to an individual who will continue to add new listings to the Wexler Doubled Die Files and the Wexler RPM [Repunched Mint mark] Files.”

A collector for more than six decades, Wexler was introduced to the error and varieties field early on, when he noticed his 1955-S Lincoln cent was a BIE variety.

Written with fellow collector Robert Wilharm, the monthly Error-Variety News was born in 1978.

Wexler was later instrumental in the merger of Collectors of Numismatic Errors and Numismatic Error Collectors of America into CONECA (aka, the Combined Organization of Numismatic Error Collectors of America).

Wexler’s research led to his two-volume reference The Encyclopedia of Double Dies. In 1983, he co-authored The RPM Book on repunched Mint marks, and in 1984, wrote The Lincoln Cent Doubled Die Book.

Responsibilities took Wexler away from the hobby in 1986, but he returned with renewed vigor in 1993.

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