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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;davidh, post: 2187627, member: 15062&quot;]Okay then, the <b>&quot;officials&quot;</b> are the ones who dictate the design changes making it Official Policy.&nbsp; Who decided to remove the V.D.B. from the Cent&#039;s reverse?&nbsp; Who decided to put the VDB back on the shoulder?&nbsp; Who decided that the Two Cent&#039;s Motto was too small and that it should be enlarged, along with changes to the ribbon, arrows and shield?&nbsp; Who decided that the design of the 3 Cent silver should be changed twice?&nbsp; Who decided that Liberty should have drapery hanging from her elbow?&nbsp; Who decided that the date fields on the Quarter and Nickel were too high and should be recessed?&nbsp; Who decided that Liberty shouldn&#039;t be half naked?&nbsp; Who decided that arrows should be placed on either side of a date to signify a weight change?</p><p><br /></p><p>These were all decisions made after input from various sources - whether it was the public, politicians or mint employees - saw some element of a design as a problem in sensibilities, durability, politics or manufacturing and effected an &quot;Official&quot; design change to rectify the &quot;defect&quot;.&nbsp; This, as I said, was a change made through an &quot;Official Policy&quot; which led to a changed design which I classify as a new type rather than a variety.</p><p><br /></p><p>The above are far different from the early hand-engraved examples where two engravers, or even the same person at different times, would produce a design that had inevitable minor differences.&nbsp; Or when dates were hand stamped with the resulting positional differences.&nbsp; Or hand-stamping mint marks.&nbsp; Or re-stamping over a weak detail.&nbsp; Or defects in the machine transfer processes.&nbsp; Or various repeated defects and errors in the actual stamping process.&nbsp; All of these things make varieties, that were in no way a result of a decision somewhere &quot;up the line&quot; to make a particular change or misalignment of detail.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, new <u>Types</u> are a result of a deliberate change; <u>Varieties</u> are a result of human vagaries or machine mistakes.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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