Baldwin Rarity Ratings on Coins of India

[Harry]

I have found the following Baldwin site on Coins of India to be very useful: http://www.baldwin.co.uk/coins-of-india/ 

Does any one know what the following ratity ratings means on his site?

C
NR
N

and how would they rank with the following

S, R, RR and RRR?

[capnbirdseye]

They use the Scholten scale, I guess NR will be somewhere between the two

Rarity    Number of known coins
C    Common
N    Normal
S    Scarce
R    Rare
RR    Very Rare
RRR    Extremely Rare
RRRR    Of the utmost rarity


Vic

[Harry]

They use the Scholten scale, I guess NR will be somewhere between the two

Thanks Vic, although I've noticed where the comment on the coin is "Not traced" the rarity rating is NR. So could it be "Not recorded" or "None Recorded"?  See

http://www.baldwin.co.uk/coins-of-india/EarlyCoinages/MadrasPagodaMM.htm
http://www.baldwin.co.uk/coins-of-india/EarlyCoinages/MadrasHalfDudu2ndIssue.htm

[akona20]

I think Not Recorded (or similar) is correct.

[capnbirdseye]

I think Not Recorded (or similar) is correct.

It seems that is right, although it's mentioning a coin that apparently doesn't exist 

[Harry]

In that case maybe we should read NR as "Not Rated".

[brokencompass]

In terms of numbers, in most references RRR is given to a coin that has less than 50 known specimens.

[natko]

Number of Rs is always controvertial. Of course, we won't even mention small sellers that always put dozen of those letters on ebay, or wherever.

Just to mention this categorization should not effect condition of the item! It should be specially mentioned in description like "extremely rare in this condition" or "finest graded by blabla"

capnbirdseye is right. R should be a rare piece anyway, but not rare we tend to see in SCWC. Five Rs is unique piece. Now, what is 4 Rs depends on matter and I think that's fair. Same degree of rarity can't be used on US coin, where demand is much higher than e.g. medieval coinage of Wadiya.

For instance, Croatian book that deals with our medieval coinage lists RRR (R3) up to 60 known examples, R4 up to 20. They put R5 as up to 5, same as another book of the same topic, but that another include special R6 category for proved unique pieces (trial strikes or so). Some R5 are suspected unique items.

I'm sure RRRR for US or Indian Coinage can't be 20 pieces, but 200 maybe

[Harry]

I sent an email to Baldwin's via their website asking them about "NR" and got an email from Paul Steven who put together this amazing catalog:

In my website (which is now quite old and my own database has changed somewhat), the designation NR means No Rarity. In other words I don't know. RRR simply means extremely hard to find. It can vary from only one known specimen to several known but hardly ever offered for sale. So not as precise as you might like. Of course, all these measures are my own personal views and they change from time to time as I discuss these matters with other people.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Paul