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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1823669, member: 19463&quot;]I like to think that our young numismatists will find something better to do with their lives than undertake a completely thankless and impossible task:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Rarity has next to nothing to do with value/market price.&nbsp; Condition minutiae are much more important.&nbsp; Many of our high value coins are quite common (Owls, Tribute Pennies).&nbsp; Most of us with any large number of coins probably have one that is the only survivor from that die set but no one cares.&nbsp; There are about 80 known EID MAR denarii of which the worst is worth much more than the sum of my possibly unique coins.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>2. An ancient book with Red Book completeness, prices compiled from sales or reasonable estimates in 5 grades with all known varieties as minute as some of our Red Book varieties (1960 small and large date, close and wide AM, a plethora of overdates or over mintmarks) would (just a guess here) be something between 10 and 100 feet thick and have to sell for at least $10,000.&nbsp; Demand would be low.</p><p><br /></p><p>3.&nbsp; No one actually tries to assemble a complete set after they pass the first beginner stage.&nbsp; Few agree on what a complete set is.&nbsp; There are some who consider all coins of one emperor to be the same for their purposes and would be happy with a Red Book ignoring reverses.&nbsp;&nbsp; David Vagi came close to that when he only listed rare types separately from the ordinary which he lumped together.&nbsp; How did that go over?&nbsp; He was not wrong when it came to market pricing but it was not what the book market really wanted to hear.&nbsp; They want catalog numbers.&nbsp; Disagree?</p><p><br /></p><p>4.&nbsp; I like to think that the authors of RIC would not have presented rarity quite the way they did if they understood how it would be abused.&nbsp; It will be interesting to see how this is handled if there ever is a new RIC edition (not just a reprint).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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