| Author |
 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,182 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
My impression was that a variety is simply coins of the same year/mint that differ in some way, but are minted exactly as intended. Such example would be the Large and Small Date 1960 Lincoln, or Wide AM, or things of that nature. And error would be ANY defect that was not by design or intention. Such as over dates, double dies, warn dies (no D lincolns, 3-Leg Buffalo), and then of course the obvious like off center or misaligned dies. Am I on the right track or am I missing something? |
|
|
|
Valued Member
United States
140 Posts |
There is a huge thread that discusses this somewhere here..its about 3 pages long and the "power hitters" are discussing it...very good and informative thread. From my understanding, errors are coins that are produced different than the die's original state...I don't believe over dates and true double dies are error coins as the die has the image in it to begin with...may be completely wrong about this....warn dies, die cracks, chips, Cuds, clips, off centers, broad strucks, etc are true error coins...and yes, the 3-leg buffalo is considered an error as the original die had a 4th leg. |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3507 Posts |
To get it as simply as I possibly can.
Errors are a mishap in the minting process itself.
Varieties can be traced back to individual dies.
Varieties also include intentional changes to dies like the 1960 Large and Small date coinage.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
G'day, this is often discussed in Australia.
The annual production of our coins often runs to tens of millions - I'm not sure of the figures in the US or elsewhere. This involves lots of dies. Whether by accident or design, varieties emerge. Then there is wear and tear.
There is debate in Oz about our florin of 1959: everyone knows what it's meant to look like. But an engraver decided to make one die a little different. It seems to effect 5~10% of coins, and is very easy to see with the naked eye. The general public found it very amusing. But, collectors debate with this is a "variety" - because the feature was in the die at the outset; or an "error", because the Master of the Mint certainly didn't intend the extra feature to exist at all.
I might make the 1959 florin into the subject of a contest, so I won't rush to tell you what the extra feature on some coins is. That florin had the Queen on the obverse, and the Coat of Arms on the reverse.
Peter in Oz
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
I would agree with Bill except that he is pairing variety and die variety. They are two different things.
An error is a mistake that happens either while the planchets are being made or while they are being struck into coins. These are the clipped planchets, split planchets, broken dies, wrong metal strikes, die trial strikes, brockages, broadstrikes, etc.
A die variety is an unintended 'doubling' that happens on the die during the die making process. Includes doubled dies, repunched mintmarks, over mintmarks, over dates, misplaced mintmarks, misplaced dates, and repunched dates...and that's all.
A variety is an intended design change that the mint knew about but didn't necessarily intend for the public to care or notice...like large and small dates, different mintmark styles, etc.
The major thing to note is that errors are generally coin to coin - die varieties happen on all coins struck by a single die. Varieties can involve multiple dies and includes all the coins they strike.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3507 Posts |
I tend to lump them together and then separate them into "die variety" and variety later. Chuck is more accurate with the terminology. When you try to keep it simple you sometimes leave a distinction or two out:-) Thanks Chuck..
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3507 Posts |
Hi Peter THOMAS...our terminology would include the 1959 Florin as a variety since it was intentional and was a part of the die.
I won't give it away but all the 1959 Florin pieces struck for circulation have the same "anomoly". So it is different from issues of other years but not different from other florin coins dated 1959. It is different from the proof issue of this coin for 1959.
I have 25 parrots here so I had a special interest in this one:-) No parrot on the coin.....anyway...:-)
Edited by foundinrolls
01/12/2008 10:48 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
Thank you, foundin, for the simple description.
I can find similar errors amongst a variety of dies.
I can find a variety of errors from the same die.
And, as you pointed out, I can find a variety of dies.
all in the same year.
Jim
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3507 Posts |
It's late now:-) That last post is gonna take more thought than I have left tonight:-)
|
| |
Replies: 9 / Views: 1,182 |
|
Posted 01/12/2008 5:26 pm
