Putting together a club talk on rarities in the Edwardian sterling series of the late-13th and early-14th centuries made me wonder what the word rarity in numismatics actually means. This article, featuring coins from a wider chronological range, is my personal take on this.
Lord Stewartby
Many authors have tried to define rarity in terms of number of existing specimens. In his excellent book, English Coins 1180–1551, Lord Stewartby uses the terms ‘Extremely Rare’ (ER), ‘Very Rare’ (VR) and the word ‘Rare’ alone. Stewartby adds that ‘ER’ would suggest less than 10 specimens, VR, 10–15 examples and amplifies this as ‘difficult for a collector to obtain’ and Rare as ‘being vaguer, something that would appear on the market from time to time but would be much less abundant than most comparable types’. Other authors have added ‘Scarce’ (S) and ‘Common’ (C) to the list, but I consider these extra terms as being only of limited value. I shall, therefore, refer to Stewartby’s rarity grading in this article.
I think an objective view of rarity like this is almost impossible to use on its own and, perhaps, other reasons for why coins may be considered rare should be looked at. I accept that in the following analysis the different definitions of rarity will overlap. I’m sure that readers might disagree, but at least I have had a go.
