JR Newsletter: 17 May 2026 (693)

The first contribution today comes from Brad Karoleff:

 

The deadline for the next issue of the John Reich Journal is fast approaching and we are quite short of content. Please consider sending something before the end of the month do we can meet the deadline. 

 

Thanks for all your help and looking forward to seeing many of you in Pittsburgh. 

 

Brad

--

 

Steve Herrman announced the upcoming JRCS Zoom meeting:

 

Please do not miss the upcoming JRCS Quarterly Zoom Meeting.

 

Time: Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 7:00 PM Eastern, 4:00 PM Pacific

 

Agenda: Ted Barrow will give a talk about his experience with three different coin registries (PCGS, CACG, and NCG).

--

 

Sheridan Downey wrote:

 

Readers who collect bust halves may be interested in a Price List of scarce and rare die varieties, mostly raw and mid-grade, that I posted Friday night on my website.  There are 74 pieces, gleaned from the recesses of my bank vault.  A pdf version of the list is available for download here: https://www.sheridanscoins.com/inc_News.php.  

 

Sheridan attached an Excel version to this message (which your editor has converted to pdf for ease of publication: https://mcusercontent.com/74a0e3c37d154d935bdeb2daf/files/b0fec950-ee7a-8338-0711-7b6aaac55c1a/May_2026_FPL.pdf)

 

I look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh.

 

Kind regards,

     Sheridan

 

 

 

 

JR Newsletter: 26 April 2026 (692)

 Brad Karoleff wrote:

Brad Karoleff and Steve Herrman were talking at the Central States show and they said they have a shortage of articles for the next John Reich Journal.  If you have something to contribute, please submit your articles soon so they can produce a great next issue!

JR Newsletter: 19 April 2026 (691)

 Sean Kelly wrote:

The next JRCS Zoom call is Wednesday May 20, just a month away. I'm looking for a presenter or two to share their experience, questions, and learnings with their fellows. Any topic befitting the JRCS members' interests of any duration is fine. Please reach out! skelly63(at)gmail.com

(Note, if we don't get a volunteer, I plan on playing a 58 minute video of Sean Kelly and Brad Karoleff performing their no-spoken-word show, The Nuances of the Mint Act of 1837 through the medium of modern interpretive dance, accompanied by bagpipe music. There are seven costume changes. It's magical.) 

Reminder:  Sean is also asking for help from Capped Bust dime collectors. The GroovyCoins website was started for the attribution of half dimes but now has a section to allow folks to attribute the dimes as well: https://groovycoins.com/cbdattribution

The site has the bare minimum number of attributes for all dies, but he would appreciate help from dime experts in fleshing the selectable criteria to make the site more useful and friendly. Your contributions would include more details about the most subtle and confusing dies to attribute.Thanks!

Sean

JR Newsletter: 5 April 2026 (690)

Sean Kelly wrote:

Sean Kelly is looking for someone to share their experiences, accomplishments, or questions at the next Zoom call, Wednesday May 20. The topic can be what you want it to be. If a few of you volunteer and have short presentations we can certainly accommodate more than one in our time. Please consider sharing - no need for anything fancy (although pictures of coins are pretty popular!) If you aren't comfortable with the technology - you can email your materials to a willing volunteer helper who can share the screen, and all you have to do is talk!

Sean is also asking for help from Capped Bust dime collectors. The GroovyCoins website was started for the attribution of half dimes but now has a section to allow folks to attribute the dimes as well: https://groovycoins.com/cbdattribution

The site has the bare minimum number of attributes for all dies, but he would appreciate help from dime experts in fleshing the selectable criteria to make the site more useful and friendly. Your contributions would include more details about the most subtle and confusing dies to attribute.

• Pickup points to look for and what obverse/s or reverse/s they apply to.
• Whether the feature is optional or mandatory:
• Mandatory: will get a Y and N flag. If the element is not extant and the user presses N, it will disqualify all of the coin dies that lack that element. Example: "O in OF centered over second U in scroll". Pressing N removes all those reverses that lack that feature from their attribution.
• Optional: will only get a Y flag. Example: die cracks that form are either not there or there. Answering Y when the cracks are present can help affirm a coin, but doesn't disqualify any dies based on the absence of the cracks.
• Images sent to me (or sent as links to good examples in, say, Coinfacts). These may be added to increase confidence. See: https://groovycoins.com/cbdattribution?year=1833 which has a clickable image in the list of obverses.

JR Newsletter: 22 March. 2026 (689)

Sean Kelly wrote:

Please consider sharing your experience, knowledge, and ideas with the rest of the JRCS by volunteering to speak at the JRCS meeting at the ANA World's Fair of Money (Pittsburgh, August 25-29), or by presenting at one of our quarterly Zoom calls (May 20 is the next one).

This hobby has inspired all of us to spend significant time and treasure in the pursuit of learning about and acquiring our collections. We are a population of intelligen, accomplished individuals with experiences that are interesting and valuable. If just a few of us each year would commit to sharing their passion with the rest, then I could get back to eBay looking for my next cherrypick and stop begging for presenters! :-)

If you have an idea and you're not sure whether it fits, please reach out to Sean (skelly63 at gmail dot com) and let's talk about it. And - THANK YOU!

JR Newsletter: 15 March 2026 (688)

Brad Karoleff wrote:

The first 2026 issue of the John Reich Journal is in the mail. A few of you may already have received it by the time you read this!

If you do not receive yours in a couple of weeks please feel free to contact me at bkaroleff(at)yahoo.com 

The next issue will be out in July announcing all the events scheduled for the annual ANA show. We need submissions ASAP for content. Please contact me if you think you may be able to help with content. 

Brad

JR Newsletter: 8 February 2026 (687)

 Brad Karoleff wrote:

The deadline for the spring issue of The John Reich Journal is rapidly approaching. Please consider submitting something for publication as we are well short of a full issue.  

A couple of you have already promised something and your efforts are greatly appreciated.  Please see if you can wrap things up and submit them to us by the 15th.

Best, your begging editor.

Brad