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Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 36582, member: 57463"](I love the quote!) Errors are a perfect example of how the so-called "mainstream" changes with time.  I recently bought Heaton's MINT MARKS from 1893.  Back then, no one cared about Branch Mint coins per se.  It was still over 15 years before collecting by Mint mark tended toward the mainstream, first with the 1909-S VDB.  Even so, it was not until the invention of the coin board in the 1930s that Date and Mint sets became standard.  That continues even today, of course. Communication is more rapid now, but you have to step back and realize that forty years intervened between Heaton's booklet and the arrive of coin boards.  As you note, Errors go back to the 1960s, and here we are 40 years later. One difference is that you can collect almost any series by date and Mint mark, French francs, German 5 marks, etc., etc.  (Some nations have just one mint.  Date and Mint mark is mostly irrelevant to tokens and totally irrelevant to medals, though it can apply to banknotes, as with the US Federal Reserve.  I suppose that "Nationals" would be a greatly expanded version of that.)  On the other hand, we do not yet tend to collect a broad range of numismatic items by Error.  On the other other hand, some people do just that. My point in starting the thread is to see if there is indeed any "mainstream."  Perhaps there is not.[/QUOTE]