Creating A New Canadian Variety Reference?

the electronic way is the future but like devlec and fourmack have mentioned the hackers are lurking and you can't hack a book so CD/DVD is probably a good idea or a membership to the site

Thanks so much for the eight bowing smilies, but one or two would have been fine. My ego is on a diet and is trying to slim down!

I've been collecting since 1951 and in the ensuing years I've seen some egos that really needed to go on a diet. I could tell you lots of stories...

Anyway, I understand the potential downsides of an online site. For example, it was very sad (and frustrating) to see the CCC forum disappear. Shawn still has the power to revive it, but each passing day makes it less likely he'll do it. Downsides notwithstanding, I still think online is the best way to go for a variety catalog. Another great thing about such a site is that is does not need to be complete to start; it could gradually build over time.

I'm going to plead ignorance and ask what the CCC forum is?

Another idea is to have a series of PDFs that would be updated every few years, with input from the collecting community.

Input could be submitted via mail, email, facebook, etc.

Make it accessible to everyone. It would be one way to break the chokehold of the Charlton/ICCS monopoly.

The CCC Forum is/was Canadian Copper Coin Forum, owned by Shawn Bouchard.

For heaven's sake, don't entertain any thoughts of referencing me in any proposed variety numbering system. I certainly appreciate the thought, but it would add to the length of the number. Believe me, shorter is better. I've actually devised a universal numbering system (unpublished as yet) for the Canadian Victorian cent dies and it would probably be possible to extend it to other denominations and monarchs.

You could also email me. I'm always on the lookout for something new to include in the catalog....

What does more harm a collector/ Seller who deems themselves above all who makes up varieties and gets grading company's to write down a made up variety to gain notoriety or financial gain. Lets say these made up variety's were to find their way onto E-Bay and sell for hundreds of dollar's and a young collector buy's one thinking he has something special. Later only to find out the variety is a not recognized variety
With any book any collector starting out can use it as a guide and that's all a book is a guide to start them out, as the new collector gains years collecting they will gain knowledge. During this learning time if they make a mistake then the mistake will be based on the interpretation of the book and a learning experience. This collector will mostly likely keep on collecting, buy a make up variety and using how I would feel if I was to buy one, might make me walk away from collecting and not come back.
To try to write a tell all book on variety's would nearly be impossible because new variety's are showing up all the time. Then comes the problem that's in my first paragraph what do with all the graded coin's that are not true variety's, and what makes up a new variety? How many coin's does it take to make a new variety?. One coin 5 coin's 10 coin's then who get to decide who sits down at the round table to decide what's a variety. If we can get this far what's the cost of the book going to be 100 dollar's 200 hundred dollar's? I agree you put it on the web it will get hacked, someone could use this information write articles using this information and claim it's their own research or write a book how do you police that?
I'm not sure what to do what I believe is we must protect teach and educate the younger collector and pass on what we have learned. They are the future of coin collecting they are our legacy