PeterShell Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 When I read descriptions of the coins sometimes I feel confused ... What is the meaning ... how to understand the words "key date" ? I feel that even serious sellers are abusing this and it is rather "key" to better price than to..history of the Russia, one of the tsars or monetary history ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abish Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I understand it as just meaning a year that is harder to find for that coin, not that the year is especially significant to the country it was minted in. For instance, a key date might be a perfectly mundane year for that country, but one that happened to have a low mintage. I do think it is over-used, especially online. A lot of coins that some dealers would just sell as better years get bumped up to key dates kind of arbitrarily. In my speaking to other collectors, some are more old-school and still think that they should only use 'key date' on the rarest years for that coin, some people use key date on dates that aren't all that rare for their type but are just not as readily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saor Alba Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 For instance with Russian coins 1911 used to be considered "key date" because of alleged low mintage of those 10 ruble coins, but some of us here are of the opinion that there are far more than just 50K examples minted and that they were probably cranking them out in early USSR era. For Polish coins, I believe Warsaw mint was minting 1939 dated coins when Germans invaded, and most were never released to circulation. So 1939 could be considered "key date" for collectors. BTW, nice to see the snake charmer back in our midst Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-kuna Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 When I read descriptions of the coins sometimes I feel confused ... What is the meaning ... how to understand the words "key date" ? I feel that even serious sellers are abusing this and it is rather "key" to better price than to..history of the Russia, one of the tsars or monetary history ... too many sellers on ebay speculate the term "key date" to help a sale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholasz219 Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 PeterShell, On any internet listing you will see many words that may not necessarily have anything to do with a coin's actual rarity/condition rarity. Since most internet sales are driven by searches, many sellers, especially US sellers who are marketing savvy, will include any word that may generate more "hits" on each page. Hence listings like "1917 Super RARE Key Date Russia Finland USSR 10 Pennia Coin". Obviously that is an extreme example, but using words like "coin" when you are obviously searching the coins categories may not make sense, unless the seller is hoping to catch buyers who may not realize to search the coin specific categories. As for me, I disregard all sales talk like that. I search by "Russia", then the dates I am looking for, with possibly the denomination added. I usually skip the denomination of the coin I'm looking for unless I am in a hurry because half of the time the sellers spell the denomination wrong. This allows me to see all items and just skim past the coins that are junk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abish Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 For instance with Russian coins 1911 used to be considered "key date" because of alleged low mintage of those 10 ruble coins, but some of us here are of the opinion that there are far more than just 50K examples minted and that they were probably cranking them out in early USSR era. For Polish coins, I believe Warsaw mint was minting 1939 dated coins when Germans invaded, and most were never released to circulation. So 1939 could be considered "key date" for collectors. BTW, nice to see the snake charmer back in our midst I try to balance out every hundred or so nonsense posts with a semi-constructive one. I agree Nicholasz219, it is all about marketing. Accuracy isn't that important on sites like Ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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