Condition census?

dan1ecu

Can anyone tell me what “condition census” means? If applied to a particular variety, does it mean that the coin is in the highest grade known for that variety?

Thanks,

Dan

darktone

Yes it means it's one of the top specimens known. mike

kranky

Doug Winter explains it this way on his raregoldcoins.com site:

"The concept of Condition Census was first introduced to numismatics by noted Large Cent collector and researcher Dr. William Sheldon in the 1940's. Since then, it has been refined to include a listing of approximately the five or six finest examples of a specific date or type or in the case of series such as Large Cents or Bust Half Dollar, a specific die variety. "

MacCrimmon

Specifically, in Early American Copper parlance, it's meant to be a coin which is one of the 6th finest known
for the variety, i.e the 1837 Newcomb 13 in my icon.

It could be any accepted variety, such as Newcomb, Sheldon, Reich, Bolender, etc.

MacC.

Singapore

Recognizing the concepts original or intended meaning, 'Condition Census' is now an extremely overused and abused descriptor applied, at least in the case of colonial coins, to just about any coin that looks pretty good.

In many (most?) cases, there is no definitive list or ranking of the top 6 or 10 or 50 coins, so any unscrupulous dealer or auction house can use the term without fear of numismatic repraisal.

Perhaps the Large Cent census is more reliable.

CLASSICS

equals ........ one of the finest known of its type.

Lakesammman

It's overused by unscrupulous people - see below.

roadrunner

Another means for sellers to extract more money from buyers.

roadrunner

Conder101

<< <i>Perhaps the Large Cent census is more reliable. >>



The large cent CC is MUCH more reliable, especially for the early dates. For each of the series (Early, middle, and late) therr is one person who has spent who has spent the past 25 to 35 years tracing and examining every possible contender for CC status and keeping extensive notes on condition, marks, pedigree etc. There are actually two people who have been doing the early dates, One of them has been taking high quality photographs of all of the top specimens of every variety. On the rarer varieties most every specimen is recorded. The Condition Census photo record contains over 30,000 images and pedigree records and the census for each variety runs to the 10 to 15 finest known specimens.