Q. David Bowers
Clearly, adjectival terms are not very useful, except to experts who probably already know whether a given issue is rare.
In The Macmillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics, Richard G. Doty commented as follows:
Unfortunately, there is no universally agreed-upon formula for such a [rarity] scale. Most often, Europeans use one with symbols, ranging from C (common) through R-l (rare) to R-8 (extremely rare-only two or three known). Americans, on the other hand, use a variety of scales; one of the best known combines symbols and numbers .... The marriage of rarity and price is a complex one. Rarity plays a part in the sense that a rare coin is apt to be worth more than a familiar coin in the same condition and in the same series ....
The interjection of rarity information in a price list or auction catalogue makes fascinating reading. In the 1950s and 1960s, John Jay Ford, Jr. was fond of using a series of R letters-one R for rare and four Rs for extremely rare-to indicate the elusiveness of a particular coin, a system based upon nineteenth century European practice. There is no doubt that a commanding, indeed imperious; RRRR after a lot description tended to compel action on the part of the bidder, perhaps like a tiger growling GRRRR! However, the reader didn't have a clue whether RRRR meant that 2 were known or if 20 existed.
Over the years a number of numismatic writers have proposed scales to denote rarity. A comprehensive list of these efforts would occupy many pages. Those given here are a sample of the rarity scales used past and present in the American series. I begin with selected early scales from the nineteenth century.
• Joseph J. Mickley July 1858): A pamphlet published by Philadelphia numismatist and antiquarian Joseph J. Mickley, Dates of United States Coins, and Their Degrees of Rarity, contained an early effort at propounding a rarity scale for U.S. coins. The scale was elementary and consisted of these letters: C = Common, R = Rare, and V.R. = Very Rare.
For silver dollars, these ratings were given: 1794 R, 1795 to 1803 C, 1804 V.R., 1840 to 1850 C, 1851 and 1852 V.R., 1853 C, 1854 R, and 1855 to 1858 C. In July 1858 when the study was published, Mickley could not have known that the 1858 Liberty Seated dollar would prove to be a Proof-only date; no coins would be made for general circulation.
• Montroville Wilson Dickeson, M.D. (1859):
Dickeson's book, The American Numismatical Manual, which appeared in print in 1859, was the first widely-circulated popular book on coin collecting published in America. It was perhaps fitting that it should also be the first to include a rarity scale. Dickeson's scale was simple and consisted of three dots: • = scarce, •• = rare, and ••• = very rare.
In the early silver dollar series, Dickeson gave the following ratings: 1794 ••• , 1795 •, 1796 •, 1797 •• , 1798 (no rating; hence, not rare), 1799 (no rating)" 1800 (no rating), 1801 •, 1802 •, 1803 •, 1804 •• , 1805 (sic; Dickeson saw this date listed in a Mint report, but did not know that it referred to Mexican dollars on hand, not new U.S. dollars coined) •••.
For later dollars, Dickeson gave these estimates of rarity: 1836 •••, 1838 •••, 1839 •••, 1840 •, 1841-3 (no ratings), 1844 ••, 1845 •, 1846 •, 1847 (no rating), 1848 •, 1849 •, 1850 •, 1851 •••, 1852 •••, 1853 •, 1854 •• , 1855 •, 1856 •, 1857 •, and 1858 •.
• W.C. Prime (1861): In Coins, Medals, and Seals, published in 1861 by Harper & Brothers, New York City, W.C. Prime used a rarity scale from 1 (the most plentiful) to 6 (greatest rarity). The author advised this:
The table of comparative rarity is based only on six orders.
It is of course impossible to distinguish all coins exactly by these six numbers. Thus the dollar of 1804 might well be ranked as more rare than almost any other of the coins. But the table will serve the purposes of the collector without more minute distinctions.
In the early silver dollar series, Prime published the following ratings: 1794 Rarity-6, 1795 R-2, 1796 R-2, 1797 R-2, 1798 R-l, 1799 R-l, 1800 R-2, 1801 R- 2, 1802 R-2, 1803 R-l, and 1804 R-6.
• Sylvester S. Crosby (1875): Crosby's The Early Coins of America, published in 1875, included a rarity scale ranging from C (common) through R(rare), plus R-2, R-3, R-4, R-5, and the highest degree, R-6. The ratings were not otherwise defined. The same scale was later used by Henry C. Miller and Hillyer C. Ryder in The State Coinages of New England, 1920.
• Lyman H. Low (1900): Lyman H. Low in his work, Hard Times Tokens, published in 1900, used this scale: V.C. = very common, C = common, N.C. = not common, S = scarce, followed by Rarity-l through Rarity-8, with R-8 being the highest degree.
The pioneer scales for rarity used by Dickeson, Prime, Crosby, Low, and others in the nineteenth century were useful in their time, as within a given series they gave a relative idea of rarity. Thus, the reader of Prime's work obtained the useful information that a 1794 dollar was notably rarer than a 1797, and the 1797 in turn was rarer than a 1798. Still, there was no way of knowing whether one 1794 dollar existed, or 100, or 1,000. All the reader knew was that it was high in the order of rarity.