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Since the purpose is study rather than personal gratification or display, a reference collection values damaged objects as much as the pristine; in fact, organizations maintaining reference collections will encourage members to donate their damaged or poor-condition items to the collection.

In Biology , reference collections are an important sort of information about variations of populations within a species. They are also the repository of Holotype s used as the official definition of a species.

In Philately , reference collections are critical to Expertization , since the characteristics differentiating authentic stamps from reprints, fakes, and forgeries are often too subtle to be described verbally.