Errors & Varieties - Where do you draw the line?

When setting up your albums I'm guessing you don't leave a space for every conceivable error and variety, there are just too many. Some of them are a little too contrived for my tastes.

I disregard errors entirely, a cracked die produces a disfigured coin - I want the best examples I can afford, not a sub standard product. What about overstruck dates though?  Some are significant and can be seen by the naked eye but there are some which are so faint that they can only be seen with high magnification. In the interests of consistency I decided to ignore them all.

It's the same story with varieties, I include only major design changes. For example, UK pennys.... both types of 1926 obverse are in, as is the toothed and beaded border variety in 1860's Victorian issues. I'm leaning towards including the low tide 1902 also. Mintmarks I also accept as a genuine variation.

I understand that there are collectors who want an all inclusive collection of every possible variety, die number etc. but nobody is going to convince me that my collection is incomplete because I choose not to. At the other end of the scale there are those who collect coins by type, regardless of even the year.  Each type of collecting is equally valid I think.

My own criteria for deciding what to consider a complete collection goes something like this:-

The change should be intentional, i.e not an error coin
It should be significant enough to be seen with the naked eye
It should have occured in sufficient numbers, i.e. not a few hundred coins struck on the wrong planchet

Are we brothers in a way, Philip?

I certainly agree with your statements. There are simply too many varieties (US Dollar coin edge rotations...) and some seem to make no sense.

Quote: SmartOneKgAre we brothers in a way, Philip?

I certainly agree with your statements. There are simply too many varieties (US Dollar coin edge rotations...) and some seem to make no sense.

This really gets in the way when listing coins for trade. There are some varieties in the Numista database that I either don't recognize as a variety (like the dollar coin edge orientations), or I am unable to tell apart by eye.   I wish Numista had some way to accommodate collectors like me who aren't detailed variety collectors, who just collect by date and mintmark (let alone those who collect only by type).  I think the best way to do this would be to include options for "I want this coin" and "I don't want this coin".

Thanks Cerulean!

Like Proof entries. Not everyone has them.

I agree with most of everything thats been said. I don't care much about die cracks or edge lettering. But I do think some of the major error coins are notable and I would add them to a collection.  Wrong planchet strikes and metal vs coin alignment stikes for example, are a major error and i would add them. But the type 1 and 2 Susan B dollars (US) are decided by the clairity of the mint mark S. I have seen  graded slab examples of these two side by side and could barely tell the differance. With just one of them, I wouldn't have a prayer of a proper id. I collect most coins by type, but the few I do collect by date/mint I usually just follow the Krause listings. They have been at this game a lot longer than I. But if you have ever spent a whole day, as I have, trying to determain if this is a _______ or a _____, then you understand how hard it is to wrap a neat bow around this issue and even the pro's find it challanging.

Quote: SmartOneKgThanks Cerulean!

Like Proof entries. Not everyone has them.

We could just do the following - every Numista registered collector could tick/untick the options in their profile settings:

List:
- Krause types
- Numista major types
- regular coinage issues (=business strikes, circulating issues)
- circulating commemoratives
- NCLT (=non circulating legal tender issues, non-circulating commemoratives)
- Proofs
- mint sets
- silver bullion
- gold bullion
- die varieties
- mintmarks
- privy marks
- errors (wrong alignment, wrong planchets, etc.)
- etc.

The collector just selects the option(s) he is interested in and the Numista listings will be tailored to his preferences displaying only those entries qualified by the request. But to implement this, first we need to rearrange the layout of Numista coin pages - just divide it into 2 sections for every coin type:
- first only business strikes are to be listed chronologically
- then only proofs and mint sets
In this case the proofs if listed separately in a section under business strikes (the division of the sections is to be visually outlined) will not distract the non-proof collector.

And a very nice idea about "Want List"

Cheers, Alex

neilithic, here we go again...

I draw it at magnetic, non-magnetic, position A and B.

Quote: SmartOneKgAre we brothers in a way, Philip?

Now that you mention it, you guys do look like two brothers of Puerto Rican descent, just that Phil bleached his hair.

Quote: pnightingale... a cracked die produces a disfigured coin

I don't mind seeing a nice crack here and there , this one caught my attention...

Quote: torontokubaneilithic, here we go again...

I draw it at magnetic, non-magnetic, position A and B.

Quote: SmartOneKgAre we brothers in a way, Philip?

Now that you mention it, you guys do look like two brothers of Puerto Rican descent, just that Phil bleached his hair.

I have just get back from having an MRI done and the rather attractive radiologist remarked what beautiful hair I had. I let her touch it because she had a snake tattoo winding from her ankle to her thigh which I thought was erotic.

It's a well known fact that most North Americans have either terrible hair or no hair at all due to wearing ballcaps for 20 hours a day. Mine however is golden and perfect and despite the scurrilous rumours spread by colonials about British dentistry, I also have perfect white teeth.

Quote: pnightingaleI also have perfect white teeth.

Yes, and I have a nice shiny coin, doesn't mean I was born with it. Are your teeth all yours or were they a later addition, like the radiologists erotic tatoo?

Has there been a topic about this error...

http://www.norges-bank.no/en/about/news-archive/77905/50-ore-coins-with-date-error/

All natural my friend. I grew up in a land of free dental care and didn't even have a filling until I arrived in Atlanta Airport, bit on a mint and bang.... cracked tooth, that will be $400.

Now THAT is an error I could live with. I wouldn't include it as a part of my collection though, If I was fortunate enough to find such a prize I would keep it separately. As part of a numismatic freakshow if you will.

I collect coins from leper colonies so I am far from an apartheid-coin-nazi. They have a certain macabre attraction, I guess it's the same thing as error coins.

Congrats on the hair and teeth, if you were a horse, they'd add value.