Hierarchy To Sort A Collection

Jurisdiction (Canada, NFLD, US etc), Denomination (or type if sets etc), Date, Variety, grade

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In practical terms (purists love to argue the details of course!) a variety will appear on the coin list as a separately priced item. Such as the Double Yoke varieties of the 1974 nickel dollar. http://coinsandcanada.com/coins-pri...ar-1953-1986 (not a complete list). There are also errors that may appear on any (usually circulation) coins but are generally not worth much except interest. http://coinsandcanada.com/coins-err...arieties.php

Most collectors look for coins for sets. Dividing first by denomination and then by type is usually easiest, then placing in date order under each type.

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Nope. That would be too easy! Generally both are unintentional. Think of a variety having more to do with the design/manufacture of the dies being used to strike the coins and an error having more to do with something going wrong during the minting of an individual coin. IE, back in the Victorian dies the dates on coins would be punched in by hand. So on one die the last two digits might be spread out more (far date) and on another die they might be closer together (near date). These are varieties. If a drop of grease lands on the planchet just before it's struck ( Struck Through Grease) or a piece of the die breaks off while in use (die chip) then it's an error. Again, numismatists are happy to argue some of them one way and some the other so don't assume there is a definitive, authoritative list out there that covers all circumstances and is recognized to do so by all. Charlton Vol 1 went through a major revision a while back removing some listings that were previously deemed as varieties but then got re-considered to be errors. Some errors still remain listed in the catalogue though as they were grandfathered due to interest in them. For example, the 1956 10c Dot was removed from Charlton but is still a separate listing at http://coinsandcanada.com/coins-pri...ts-1953-1964. Both Charlton and C&C.com list the 1967 1c Double Date but only C&C.com lists the 1979 1c Double Date.

I always thought that Hans Zoell had the best definition of a "variety", but he used the definition to differentiate between a Major and a Minor variety. To him, a variety was a coin that was struck with good dies, with good planchets on properly working machinery ... and that coin was somehow different than another. Design or position/correctional changes were approved by the mintmaster or the person in authority on the floor. Varieties can be due to changes in placement, position, font, monarch, legends or corrections to design, lettering or digits. Errors are anything else (cuds, die cracks, weak strikes, laminations, Mechanical Doubling, etc.

Yes, as I said, good dies on good planchets and properly working machinery.... and any changes approved by the mintmaster. I would imagine that "human error" would/could be considered a variety, such as wrong punch, upside down punch (1859 9/6), etc. Almost anything else is an error, including strike-throughs, die rotations, etc.