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Message:: [QUOTE="Curtis, post: 24674365, member: 26430"]Interesting answer! I know little of these, but I trust that you've got it right. A good illustration that (1) "rarity" is not a single, fixed property of coin, and (2)  recording findspots/hoard location is important. There is a tendency to describe a coin as being either common, scarce, or rare (or some similar label). But rarity is not inherent in the coin, nor fixed. A coin may be of a very common type, but rare in some particular way, such as having been found in a particular unusual place. (There are other illustrations of the general principle; e.g., a coin that was once common <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-does-rare-mean-for-an-ancient-coin.399706/#post-8552807" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-does-rare-mean-for-an-ancient-coin.399706/#post-8552807">may become the only known specimen</a> of its "type" once a new die-study has been published.) Praising the British system for recording new finds is unnecessary, but it's "how we know." Findspot (and its context) can give a coin's "object biography" much more general value. As in this case, it can really transform what the coin "is" (or, "is to" different audiences). It's no longer "(just another) Corieltavi Stater." Now it's "(one of the few) Celtic coins found in Wales" -- a much more interesting category of object. Understanding coins and money is always about assigning categories and meanings -- from their production, to spending, to cataloging & collecting them. That meaning never derives from the physical object alone. "Object-biographical" information often allows for more freedom and depth in making those assignments.[/QUOTE]

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