Is a die clashed coin an error coin? If some call it a variety can it still be an error? Would your answer be different if you knew the mint worker clashed the dies on purpose? Just some crazy thoughts.
I would place clashed dies in the category of variety because every coin struck by the clashed dies will have the clash marks.
What Conder said! If you go to VAMWorld and take a look at the 82-CC VAM2 series, you'll find that the dies went through multiple clashes and counterclashes. Chris
Thank you for helping me see the bigger picture. Die state. Die state. I'm gonna commit that to memory. Die state.
For me, and pre-WWII Canadian coins, a variety is a coin struck with proper dies, good planchets, on good machinery (in proper working order) and the dies were approved by the mintmaster/supervisor as OK to use. Clashed dies happened by accident, due to the machinery/line not operating properly (no planchet fed) and many were then polished out or die wear made them disappear, so they were not "good" dies. Likewise, die chips, cracks, breaks, cuds, strike-throughs, etc are examples of things not in good working order and repairs would be made or they would use the die until failure and then discard. I consider those, and a myriad of other "mistakes" as errors and modern QA would have removed them before issued. Now re-engravings, re-entered, repunches, date/digit spacings, Obverses, reverses, legend fonts, etc are all things to be run as per the mintmaster direction/approval, so I consider them varieties. That's my rule of thumb for me personally, but it's not necessarily by the book .. it just keeps things relatively straight between the ears for me. Many will disagree with my terminology but, if it was good enough for the Canadian Variety pioneers from 50-60 years ago, it's good enough for me. I agree that "die state" is the correct term, but it's still an error to me.
