Open and closed

Hi: I have found several coins that I have that are on this website. The part I am a little confused about is open and closed numbers. How can you possibly tell? In some cases it means a huge deal whether or not it would be then considered "rare." So how can I be sure?

Also when the date is involved....when the notes say that there is a number larger in the date does that mean that it is obvious or are they talking a precise measurement done by a professional?

I know these are kinda silly questions but I am very new at this. There seems to be allot of little things that could mean the difference between just a neat coin or a very valuable find.

  Jen

Hello Jen - either a different mint made the coins, or there was a redesign. Actually I myself was looking at a coin on here at lunchtime today, and wondered if it had an open 8 or closed 8 number in the date. Perhaps if you could add a link to any you have a query on then we could help on here. An example is ...
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1012.html
 That has not only open and closed 8 numbers, also round and flat top 3 numbers on there!

There is a good site with pictures of some differences; it belongs to member cobra and is ...
http://monnaiesetvarietes.zxq.net/
and for example on there is a page that shows open and closed 9 on France 5 Francs KM# 888
http://monnaiesetvarietes.zxq.net/FICHES/France/FRANCE%205%20francs%20lavrillier%20alu.pdf

 I remember a Topic in the past that mentioned perhaps adding notes on any page where number or date varieties exist. I cannot find it, but there is this one also ...
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic5184.html

Thanks. I checked out the links and this helps allot. I guess I need to invest in a good magnifier. Thanks so much for helping. Jen