Weights on Numista

I recently had a change request turned down where I'd replaced the weight given for an individual coin on NGC with the standard weight from the mint. Another, higher weight was then found and the change was accepted. This got me thinking about what we really mean when we state the weight of a coin. Even with modern manufacturing, the exact weight of a coin is bound to vary a little from the standard and, for older coins, even the average is likely to be below the standard due to wear. For ancient coins, I imagine all we have are averages from known pieces but, for more modern coins, we know what the standard weight is and this is what is generally stated. My question is, should we have a way of distinguishing between these two kinds of weight? I can imagine some collectors weighing their coin and expecting it to match the weight we give and not realising this may only apply for mint-state pieces with no wear. Perhaps we need a choice for our weights between “standard” and “measured”?

We would need a way to link sources to data points. Then you could see ‘Weight 8.0 g_[1]’ - Mint report, Reference X or Individual measurement(s) etc.

Until/if that ever happens just adding an additional free text box for a comment (like for composition) would work.

I measure all coins going into my collection on my own scale, quite often the numista value is quite far from what I measure. Anyway, it's always inside a delta, which is acceptable.

Here is a related topic, asking for the possibility to enter a range of weight instead of a single value.
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic141710.html

Xavier

Here is a related topic, asking for the possibility to enter a range of weight instead of a single value.
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic141710.html

Sorry, that link goes to this thread. Certainly, with the necessary data, a range of weights could be provided. I'd still say that the standard weight is of some importance since, for many older coins, it was often used to determine the coin's value outside of its country of issue. Either way, it would be helpful to indicate what kind of weight we're displaying.

Sorry, here is the link for the range: https://en.numista.com/forum/topic116866.html
If we want to be exhaustive, we might want to have a range for measured weight and a range for theoretical weight (official documents sometimes indicate the weight tolerance).

Xavier

Sorry, here is the link for the range: https://en.numista.com/forum/topic116866.html
If we want to be exhaustive, we might want to have a range for measured weight and a range for theoretical weight (official documents sometimes indicate the weight tolerance).

Yes, that's right, the UK Royal Mint gives the accepted tolerances in their annual reports. It's all useful information (at least, I'm interested in it). I guess the problem is working out how to avoid giving so many different weights and/or ranges that the regular user is left confused. My original idea was to add the word "standard" to any weight based solely on official documents, so that users can understand that their coin may be a bit off and still perfectly genuine.

ceh2019

Xavier

Sorry, here is the link for the range: https://en.numista.com/forum/topic116866.html
If we want to be exhaustive, we might want to have a range for measured weight and a range for theoretical weight (official documents sometimes indicate the weight tolerance).

Yes, that's right, the UK Royal Mint gives the accepted tolerances in their annual reports. It's all useful information (at least, I'm interested in it). I guess the problem is working out how to avoid giving so many different weights and/or ranges that the regular user is left confused. My original idea was to add the word "standard" to any weight based solely on official documents, so that users can understand that their coin may be a bit off and still perfectly genuine.

“Mint data” is better than “standard”. Standard for me implies the average of a lot of measurements?

Sjoelund

 

“Mint data” is better than “standard”. Standard for me implies the average of a lot of measurements?

Actually, I'd say the opposite, that “mint data” sounds like an average published by the mint whilst “standard” implies what the coins should have been according to the law authorizing them. Either way, we'll need to explain what the terms mean. We already have a "?" next to the weight, so we can use that to explain our terminology.

This is an extract from the first Royal Mint Annual Report, showing the use of the term “standard weight” (and “standard fineness”). The allowed variation is termed the “remedy” but I'm not sure if that would be generally understood.

Similar from the US mint with the authorizing law: