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Message:: [QUOTE="Jaelus, post: 2869853, member: 46237"]I agree that clashes are noticed by the mint, and perhaps with ultra-moderns they quickly catch such defects and remove the dies from service, but the early mint did not have the luxury of switching out dies when they clashed. I have examples in my collection of multiple denominations produced up through the late 1860s where the dies were deliberately pressed into considerable use even after completely shattering, let alone having been clashed. In that case you have a pair of dies employed deliberately in that state to produce a group of coins with those same characteristics that are as-struck. This is by definition what makes a variety and not an error, and is moreso true with clashes, as unlike with cracks that progress between strikes, the clash is either there or it is not. I consider the line to be very clear between what is an error and what is not. An error is an unintended defect on a particular planchet or an unintended occurrence during the process of striking a coin, that leads to the creation of an example that is an aberration. You can have multiple coins with the same type of error, but they will each have been produced individually by a similar type of mistake.[/QUOTE]