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"Varieties Exist" per Krause ... huh?


Swimmingly

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In a fair number of coin descriptions in their Standard Catalog of World Coins, Krause editors note that "Varieties exist." Does this mean that they have not completed the taxonomy of the coin sub-types for that major type, or what? TIA, Dan

 

Generally it means things like recut dates, over dates, minor variations in design features such as three versus four berries on a branch, etc.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Indeed it looks like for more known or well publicised varieties Krause will list them, especially if they have a substantially different numismatic ($$$) value, an example can be Bolivia XIX century inverted letters or belong to contries with well established and intensive coin collecting English speaking communities, for example Canadian ones. For some, especially modern or when these varieties were likely an effect of a poor craftsmanship of the mint, they are simply noted. An example are Colombian bronze centavos with the similar simple statement "varieties exist". I have a couple in my collection which I stambled upon by accident simply comparing coins of the same year.

 

Some of the collectors go through a much more thourgh research of varieties, even these days. One of the examples is a wonderful British site that maintains a variety list of farthings and fractionals while another one is a web site and catalog of Jersey coins by H.K Fear Jersey coins. Trying to put these varieties and information on them into KM would greatly inflate the size of the volume which is already quite substantial. SO I think it is a fare practice to leave detailed varieties to the publications that provide more details than can fit into KM. But it would be nice of Krause to reference them for those who want to get additinal resources.

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Indeed it looks like for more known or well publicised varieties Krause will list them, especially if they have a substantially different numismatic ($$$) value, an example can be Bolivia XIX century inverted letters or belong to contries with well established and intensive coin collecting English speaking communities, for example Canadian ones. For some, especially modern or when these varieties were likely an effect of a poor craftsmanship of the mint, they are simply noted. An example are Colombian bronze centavos with the similar simple statement "varieties exist". I have a couple in my collection which I stambled upon by accident simply comparing coins of the same year.

 

Some of the collectors go through a much more thourgh research of varieties, even these days. One of the examples is a wonderful British site that maintains a variety list of farthings and fractionals while another one is a web site and catalog of Jersey coins by H.K Fear Jersey coins. Trying to put these varieties and information on them into KM would greatly inflate the size of the volume which is already quite substantial. SO I think it is a fare practice to leave detailed varieties to the publications that provide more details than can fit into KM. But it would be nice of Krause to reference them for those who want to get additinal resources.

Anyone interested enough in a given series to start collecting it by die variety will likely want/need to go to specialized catalogs. Krause is a general catalog which is fine as a source of general information for the casual collector, but decidedly inadequate for the needs of the specialist.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A couple of days ago I ran into another illustration of my Colombia 60's centavo example above. Here is a clear case of re-cut date on 1964 centavo. Had it been on Russian coinage of the same year it would have been classified in 5 different publications at least (no pun intended for my former countrymen numismatists) because this is somehting worth studying. However I have yet to come across any serious publication detailing Colombian coins of the XX's century.

 

968874.jpg

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