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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ajm229, post: 65123, member: 3350&quot;]Well, I know this discussion is about to &quot;die&quot; out, so I figured I&#039;d &quot;wear&quot; it out ever further with my &quot;two cents&quot; on this &quot;deteriorating&quot; subject:</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, whenever anybody asks about a definition, I like to turn to a little book known as the Merriam-Webster dictionary. And after reading all of your comments, I first off have to side with Huntsman53&#039;s definition of errors and varieties, though other numerous good points were made, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s what the dictionary says:</p><p><br /></p><p>Error - 1. An act that through ignorance, deficiency, or accident departs from or fails to achieve what should have rightly been accomplished. 2. Variation in measurements, calculations, or observations of a quantity of objects due to mistakes.</p><p><br /></p><p>Variety: 1. The quality or state of having different forms or types (I take this to mean having differences in forms/types as accepted by the Mint, such as the variations in the 1982 Lincoln cents). 2. Something differing from others of the same general kind.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oddity: (just throwing this out there for comparison!) 1. Differing markedly from the usual or ordinary or accepted.</p><p><br /></p><p>Therefore, the conclusion that I draw from this information is that an error is any piece that comes out of the mint with a flaw such as a die crack, die break, machine doubling damage (MDD), hub doubling, actual die doubling, overpunching of dates and/or mintmarks etc., dropped lettering, removal of pieces of the coin&#039;s lettering and/or deisgn due to excessive polishing, etc., etc., etc. because such things are the result of the mint&#039;s accidental or ignorant overlooking of such mistakes in the quality control processes. </p><p><br /></p><p>A variety, then, is a major design CHANGE, such as the 7 (or is it 8, now?) 1982 Lincoln cents, 1960 and &#039;70-S small and large dates, the 1945-S Mercury dimes with the S and micro-S mintmarks, etc., etc., etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>But before you go tearing into this post, just remember that this whole debate is really <span style="color: Red">ALL semantics</span>.... Anything can be classified as a variety, error, oddity, and Tribble for all anyone else cares. It all depends on your perspective. For example, several posts have indicated to me that anything of the definition of error/variety is &quot;damage&quot; to the coin. However, my definition is as above, and whereas I would find machine doubling and other &quot;mistakes&quot; to be collectable, others see them as damage. It really all just depends on the collector, and whether he or she sees such differences in coins to be of value. If such damage/error/variety/whatever gets a number of people excited about numismatics, I don&#039;t care what you call it! It makes it all the better either way!</p><p><br /></p><p>Hope I haven&#039;t alienated too many people with this post, and thanks for a good read on this topic to everybody who shared an opinion!</p><p><br /></p><p>~AJ[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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