Two new columns are joining the Coin World lineup beginning in this issue and the next.

Starting this week, a column titled “Spare Change” will be written by Fred L. Reed III, who has been a coin and paper money collector for more than 50 years.

The column will cover the wide realm of exonumia, which includes Hard Times tokens, early American tokens, Civil War tokens of all kinds, tradesmen’s tokens, so-called dollar medals, coal tokens, political tokens, encased coins and postage stamps, modern and historic casino chips, and wooden and plastic tokens, to name a few.

Reed has collected exonumia for a half century, co-edited the Civil War Token Society’s book on Patriotic Civil War Tokens, fourth edition, and has served as a contributor on tokens for auction catalogs produced by Stack’s, Presidential Coin & Antique Co., and Heritage Auctions.

He is also a contributor to Russ Rulau’s many token books, and serves as editor and publisher of the Token and Medal Society bimonthly TAMS Journal.

Reed previously wrote the monthly Coin World column “The Month That Was.”

A lifelong journalist, his career includes six years at Coin World in the 1970s (both as a staff writer and as news editor) and 10 years as editorial director and vice president of Beckett Publications.

Currently he owns a specialty publications consulting company, enthusiast-media.com ltd, found at www.fredwritesright.com, and edits and publishes the Society of Paper Money Collectors’ magazine, Paper Money.

He is author of many books, including Show Me the Money: The Standard Catalog of Motion Picture, TV, Stage and Advertising Prop Money; and Abraham Lincoln: The Image of His Greatness.

He also co-edited several editions of a book for Coin World on paper money errors.

Reed attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, and served three years in the United States Army as an information specialist.

New Deisher column

In the Jan. 28 issue, a new column, titled “From the Memory Bank,” by former Coin World Editor Beth Deisher will make its debut.

Deisher states: “Those moments and incidents from my 35 years of reporting and writing in the numismatic realm will be the aim of this column. To borrow a phrase from Paul Harvey, it will be in the genre of ‘the rest of the story,’ with a definite numismatic bent.”

Deisher said her intent with the column “is to bring to light some of the interesting and often humorous ‘back stories’ that were ‘lost’ as the result of lack of space (in print publications) or time to write in the face of demanding deadlines.”

Deisher was editor of Coin World for 27 of the 31 years she was on the publication’s staff. She retired in April 2012.

She was also the founding editor of four numismatic publications: Coin Values, Paper Money Values, WorldWide Coins and Coin World’s Guide to U.S. Coins, Prices & Value Trends. She also led the editing of multiple editions of the Coin World Almanac, and wrote and edited all three editions of the Making the Grade book for Coin World.

Deisher is a member of the American Numismatic Association and a fellow of the American Numismatic Society. She was presented the Numismatic Literary Guild’s Clemy award in 1995 and received F & W Publications’ Burnett Anderson Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing in 2006.

In January 2010, she was presented with the Florida United Numismatists’ A.J. Vinci Memorial Award for Excellence in Numismatic Education. That same year she received the ANA’s highest award, the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award.

Deisher was born and reared in North Carolina and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She has led a variety of journalistic trade organizations, including Ohio Professional Writers, which she served as president from 2006 to 2008.

Two existing columns, “Designs of the Times” by Brad Karoleff and “Preserving Collectibles” by Susan L. Maltby, will move to a quarterly publication cycle beginning this year. ¦