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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 3470778, member: 112&quot;]It&#039;s been quite a few years now, say 15 give or take, that there was one serious study done on that. The outcome was estimated to be about 15% back then. Today I suspect that percentage would increase by several factors. And I would not be surprised if it approached 75%.</p><p><br /></p><p>That said, for many coins there are reasonable census numbers for some coins published in books and various articles. And these census numbers are arrived at by doing a great deal of very detailed research. They&#039;re always estimates of course, but educated estimates. And it is research like this that generates the various rarity scales. The books of Bowers are one good example, the gold encyclopedia by Garret and Guth would be another example. </p><p><br /></p><p>For the most part these census numbers are compiled based on auction records, as well as original mint archives, often going back as far as you can go. When we were writing <i>Gold Ducats of the Netherlands</i> every auction record that could be found going back almost 200 years, combined with mint archives and all previous publications, were used to establish census numbers. This is basically what every serious author does, those who did it long ago and those who do it today. </p><p><br /></p><p>Bottom line, what you end up with are the number of examples for a given coin that are known to exist. Sure, there may be others out there, but if they are unknown then you can&#039;t count them, you can only count those that are known to exist. For example, in 1967 Delmonte wrote his book, <i>Le Benelux D&#039;Or</i>, and in it he provided census numbers by creation his own rarity scale. In some cases coins were listed as having only 1 or 2 known examples. And remember, known means you know for certain there are many, and where they are. There was 1 coin in particular, he said there were 2 known examples, and maybe a 3rd. Well about 15 years ago I found in an auction an incorrectly attributed 3rd example, and I bought it. And I confirmed it was indeed the 3rd example. But then, over the course of 4 or 5 years, between me and a friend of mine, also a member of this forum, we found 4 more examples of that specific coin, bringing the total number known to 7. To the best of my knowledge the number still stands at 7.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is by methods like this that census numbers are arrived at. And for the most part they can be trusted. Will the numbers ever change ? Sure they can, just like I described above. But until they do, ya need to go with what ya got, utilizing the most trusted source you know of.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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