Thursday, March 18, 2010

Thinking about Victoria and her Varieties

So I'm up early today thinking about Victorian large cents and what constitutes a major variety. I'm collaborating on a project with a couple of other people on varieties, and part of the question we are attempting to answer is "what actually is a major variety?". It's sometimes easier to decide what something is not, rather than what it actually is. I know that the nondescript bird I saw on the way into work today was not a hawk, sea gull or robin. But I really didn't get a good enough look at it to decide what it was.

Ah, my first clue. A major variety needs to be readily discernible without minute or microscopic examination. I should be able to pick up the coin, look at it with perhaps a 5 or 10x glass, and be able to see the features that would allow me to determine what it is. That's a good start. It also makes sense that the variety should be repeatable. Someone else should also be able to recognize it from a description or photograph, so there can be more than one. There must be more than one, otherwise it is unique in nature. That would seem to rule out things like planchet specific issues, errors and mutilations. The feature must come from the dies.

Lots of things come from the dies. Cracks are an example but that results from a failing die. The feature is unintended so I guess that generally rules them out as major varieties. They are great diagnostic measures however, and can give insight into the life and times of a die if you study crack progression. Great diagnostic tool but not a major variety. A clash mark also come from dies. Again unintended, again we learn something about what happened during the life of the dies but not really a variety I don't think. The variation must then have to have been intended.

Design transfer from Matrix to Punch to Working Die to coin. OK that is starting to flesh out now. Three opportunities for variation. Design elements on the matrix, design elements on the punch and then any touch up design elements on the working dies. What could happen to cause major variation in intended design? Perhaps I'll get up early tomorrow and think about that!

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