Type A & B for the USSR comm. rubles

Hi to all
I've noticed that US dollars and Romanian comm. 50 bani has options for type A and B (the up or down orientation of the edge lettering) but that also exists for the USSR comm. rubles.

As I guess these rubles are common enough for collectors so it has possibly the sense to add such A and B positions in the catalog here. After talk with our dear referee for the USSR, we decided to investigate if collectors need that or not that before starting of this work which is huge enough :)

so...

I personally don't care for this distinction on any coin. It has no historical or numismatic importance.

Quote: "Cerulean"​I personally don't care for this distinction on any coin. It has no historical or numismatic importance.

​Agree.

It is mostly not about personal feeling but about more complete catalog at this site to be more attractive for people as numista somehow pretend to be a place with good and full coins list (i hope so:)

+ as i see for US dollars it exists so seems for part of numistas it is important

I hope people who collect edge text orientation varieties don't dismiss all the other types for were the text is on another position in relation to the coin face design

I believe it is ok to add a note, that such variations exist.

In something like 99% of the cases where such types exist, they are a literal flip of a coin, in that nobody cared, at the mint, which side up the planchets were, and thus both orientations are equally likely.
For those cases, there is no reason to add such "varieties", except in personal comments (for the very rare people who actually care enough to collect both).

In the rare exceptional cases (I'm pretty sure I've heard that they exist, but can't recall any specifically) where there is a usual orientation and deviation from it is much less common, yes, adding those types as varieties makes sense.
(Again, while I distinctly recall hearing that such cases exist, I can't think of any specifically.)

I agree with Idolenz, incidentally.

Hi,

Idolenz made a very good point Honestly I never noticed his findings and I DO collect according to type A and B as well, which I might stop now, having seen how far that can bring me. Bravo for bringing this into our knowledge pool.

Idolenz, have you checked, if the same is true for ALL inscribed edges on ALL coins, whether they have A & B positions or not?

Take care, Ole

I personally know that 2 Euro coins are all random in that regard and have postet a foto of that at one time on the Forum.

So I'd think that this is the case with every coin issue that has onesided writing (mass production). The first minting step is the rim, the planchets then are transported to the next step, the minting of ob- and reverse. Between the to presses they often land in big buckets and get mixed from there on to a transportbelts were they land in a random possition in the coin press (checking every coin to be in the right place would be very cost and time prohibitive).
You can see that you will get any combination of top to bottom and 0° - 359°.

Like mentioned earlier the only reason I can see numismatically to differentiate these are coins that have a vertain orientaion that should be but through a fault of the person minting or otherwise wasn't placed rigth like in the case of the Belgian 5 Francs or handplaced proof issues.

P.S. (+off Topic):
I personally don't have a Problem with People collecting how ever and what ever they want but I'd like to see Numista as a General but also informative enough catalog. To many unnesecary variants and specialties are hindering this experience in my opinion.
For example as the Referee for Japan I could blow up the Shu and Bu entries with every tiny character Variation and get 50-80 date lines that would even confuse experts in that field.

Seems to me that it all leads to the fact when US Dollars and Romanian bani will stay in catalog as especial ones with ability to point position A or B and for the USSR rubles I'll fill it in the comment. ehm...

Thanks Idolenz,

you have really convinced me to forget that kind of chaotic "variants". OK, they will stay as are in my collection, but in the future I'll not bother about them anymore Thanks Above (put you own preferred idol instead of Above)

Take care, Ole

Hi Akadotour,

it all started with the Belgium 5 francs coins from the 30ies, didn't it? The Netherlands also have the guldens with A & B in real life, but I can't remember if it's in numista as well

Take care, Ole

Quote: "Sjoelund"​Hi Akadotour,
​
​it all started with the Belgium 5 francs coins from the 30ies, didn't it? The Netherlands also have the guldens with A & B in real life, but I can't remember if it's in numista as well
​
​Take care, Ole

and 2 Euro as well :)

For an example I meant numismatically reasonable are the Belgium 5 Francs from the 1860s - 70s.
I think they all were meant to have readable text when the portrait is up but around 10% or less on some years were the other way round.
On massproduction coins you will probably see 40-60 or around 50% either type.