Standard Catalog Update : Armour coins (3)

This is the third of a three-part series of postings concerning 1955 Armour coin variations brought to our attention by specialist collector Phil Garrou.

Please take a minute to read or re-read the first two installments for all the background so we don't need to repeat it. I'll wait here . . .

O.K., this variation epitomizes the type of letter/word variations that I have come to feel are too arcane for the typical user of the Standard Catalog, though I do recognize that chronicling the minutiae of such variations is of interest to a small number of specialists. My feeling is that if we get bogged down in printing each tiny variation that results from printing errors in every card set the catalog would have to be twice as big and twice as expensive. And, as Garrou correctly points out, the easy availability of cards (coins, etc.) and their images on the internet means that more variations have been discovered in the last 10 years than in the century previous.

As you can see, the Haddix coin on the left has a fairly narrow gap between LOUIS and CARDINALS, compared to the coin on the right. Garrou has indicated that the narrow-gap version is significantly scarcer than the wide-gap piece.

These coins also perfectly illustrate the differences in "bust tilt" that are commonly found on the 1955 Armours. Note that on the coin at left, the bill of the cap points between the A and R of HARVEY, while on the right-hand coin, the bill points to the H. Trying to put a description of these variations into the catalog listing for the 1955 Armour coins could easily double or triple the amount of space used and I am not convinced this is a productive use of the limited pages available.

What are your thoughts?