Friday, July 21, 2017

Attribution Nomenclature

Call me impatient but the fact is I hate waiting.  I find stuff all the time that has no attribution listed by any of the Big 3 or is something that would be attributed as a lesser die variety.  Rather than sit on my hands waiting for someone to attribute my finds, it would be easier for me to assign attribution nomenclature.  I've already started with that Effigy Mound clash die.  Prudence and uniformity demands I come up with more formal nomenclature parameters.

Start with a general description, move towards a precise description:
Denomination - Date and Mintmark - Variety Type - Listing
Axiom #1 tells us there are exceptions to every rule so there will need to be some flexibility in how this is done.  Denomination is all well and good but there is a 1909 cent with an Indian on the front, another with Abe Lincoln.  There's 5 different quarter designs for the State or ATB Quarters in any given year.  I will need more information to disambiguate some coins.
Denomination - Date and Mintmark - Disambiguation - Variety Type - Listing
That should work.  I mostly deal with US coins.  I suppose I'll need to add Country of Origin as needed.


Denomination

Half Cent 1/2C
Cent 1C
2 Cent 2C
3 Cent 3C
5 Cent 5C
10 Cent 10C
20 Cent 20C
25 Cent 25C
50 Cent 50C
Dollar $1
2 Dollars $2
2.5 Dollars $2.5
3 Dollars $3
4 Dollars $4
5 Dollars $5
10 Dollars $10
20 Dollars $20
50 Dollars $50
100 Dollars $100

Date and Mintmark
This is fairly straightforward.  There may need to add disambiguation for Large Date-Small Date and other design varieties.

Disambiguation 
This deals with finish, composition, design type when more than 1 major design is used for a given date and mintmark, and other necessary discriminating information.
LD  Large Date
SD  Small Date
PR  Proof
RP  Reverse Proof
FM  Frosted Matte Finish
SF  Satin Finish
EH  Enhanced Finish
CU  Copper
SV  Silver
ZN  Zinc


Variety Type
Wexler puts a W in front of his DDO to make WDDO.  I'll use...P.

 
PDDO Doubled Die Obverse
PDDR Doubled Die Reverse
PRPM RePunched Mintmark
POMM Over MintMark
PIMM Inverted MintMark
PMMV MintMark Variety
PODV Obverse Design Variety
PRDV Reverse Design Variety
PCLO Clashed Die Obverse
PCLR Clashed Die Reverse
PDCH Die CHip
PDCR Die CRrack
PDBR Die BReak
PCO Cud Obverse
PCR Cud Reverse
PLLO Lathe Lines Obverse
PLLR Lathe Lines Reverse
PRPD RePunched Date
PMPD MisPlaced Date
POVD OVer Date


Listing
The number I assign.  I'm thinking I'll try to match it up with CONECA as much as possible.
If that's not good enough, CONECA will simply have to change their ways.
Different dies of the same variety would have a decimal added.  For example, a 1988-D 1c RDV-006, Die 3 of 3 would be 1C-1988D-RDV-006.3.

2 comments:

  1. go tell coneca it's time to change allll their listings! love it ken, i have full faith in your attribution and differentiating, where when i see a
    25C-2017P-PCDR-001
    i'll know what it is :)

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  2. Wow! All I can say is Kevin you've really been doing some homework! I really appreciate the help and I do believe you would be better setting up Coneca than they are themselves. I'm so confused by the small date and the large date of 1982 I have about six different varieties of 1982 at least they appear slightly different and none of them are apparently small date even though every check mark checks off for them so I'm really confused on those but I sure appreciate as much as you've made it easy with all the different press errors. Also can you tell me if post '08 pennies are Wide or Close AM? Ty sir. You are a wonderful attribute to any community!!!!

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