Varieties are Lame

Coinosaurus

So writes the cataloguer of the US Mint collection in 1914:

"Varieties are chiefly the evidence of unskillful or slovenly workmanship at the mint; they have little if any bearing upon the history of the coinage...."

This was probably written by John Landis, Mint Director (although the book is not explicitly clear about the author).

airplanenut

I don't like varieties... I can see them as neat, but I like type right now (one day maybe I'll go into varieties) and every time I see a nice coin, it's always a variety, and twice as much

Jeremy

ER

rgwill

I like emmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

techeff

Since I have a pop 1 variety morgan, I like them a lot!

DennisH

Yeah, and mint marks are a pain as well. Whoever decided we should start doing more than just collect proofs by date ruined things for everyone.

Damn I'm glad I live in an age when we have information, choices, and the freedom to make them. Oh yes, and thank heavens for minimum wage employees past and present at the Mint.

coppercoins

Found by my staff writer and photographer in a bucket of circ wheats about three hours ago...



Not bad for a two-cent find!

Myqqy

In a world where everything is mass-produced and individual craftsmanship is rare.... varieties are a pretty cool reminder of the subtle nuances that make ourselves and the rest of the world interesting....

Lakesammman

Varieties are great - Makes you think about the coinage process and do more than just fill holes. Collecting coins w/o including the varieties would be a pretty sterile endeavor.

DMWJR

Ok, they are lame. Just send them to me and I will make sure they are varieties and then you can dump them... better yet, I'll just dump them for you!

coppercoins

My thoughts exactly...without the die varieties, Lincoln cents would be down right boring. I'd have to find a different specialty. I don't collect them for looks, I collect them for the challenge of it all. If I collected strictly by looks, it would be SLQs.

JRocco

Don't worry guys, maturity is right around the corner and with maturity, comes the realization that varieties are AWESOME. They are the natural progression of wisdom and knowledge

pharmer

This little fishy ain't takin the bait.

Murphy

The straight coins themselves are hard enough to find without chasing the varieties, but I am very much attracted to certain ones and chase them regularly. I am speaking in particular about mint mark varieties, mainly Proof "S" mint marks of Type-1 & Type-2, Types 1,2,3 Ikes, Large Dates & Small Dates pennies, Large S & Small S, Round Serif, New Serif and San Serif, not to mention I keep my eyes peeled for the "No S " nickels and dimes! With those extra coins to look for, I wouldn't have money enough to pay for DD's, RPM's and other varieties...except I found the cash for a Wisconsin-D Leaf Variety Set. That variety turned me on...as do the Accented Hair Kennedy's and the Wide Rim SBA'a. Jeez, my list grows bigger every month or so. At this pace, will I soon turn into a full blown variety collector? I hope not. But, I can see why someone would say varieties are lame - there's so many of them and keeping it simple suits some people like collecting every variety may suit others.

clackamas

For the most part RPM's are lame (except something like the 38 s/s/s lincoln), OMM's can be cool but many suck, Doubled dies however are cool.

cladking

Varieties may be evidence of poor practices and work at the mint but they are
extremely instructive to collectors. They tell us about those practices as they
exist in real life and provide important clues about the minting process. They also
show how coins are distributed and packaged. They assure there are always
more coins to collect.

Cam40

i can understand the cataloguers view on varieties given his position at that time in history.
these `poor examples of quality control` would surely be `beneath` him, and so should it be for YOU too, if you were in HIS shoes.

now, cladking speaks about the true nature of varieties and how they fit in with coin collecting today.
whether you think they are lame or not, they are most certainly significant to most collectors for all the reasons
cladking said plus a few others probably.

mrearlygold

Some cataloguers in 1914 were lame.



Tom

MAD4MORGANS

So it has been said Variety is the spice of life. Without variety(ies) all coins would be is just money...pretty boring stuff!!

Shamika

Truth be told, he is correct in describing varieties as "slovenly workmanship".