Definition:
A short set of coins is a subset of the full possible set of coins. For example, a short set of Walking Liberty Half Dollars might leave out the earlier, more expensive pre-1941 coins, making the set more accessible to the average collector. The term "short set" developed from the fact that many coin folders and albums don't have enough pages to hold the entire issue of a certain type, so the albums were divided into volumes. A short set originally meant one of the two or three volumes of a specific set, but now the term is loosely applied to any dealer-conceived subset of coins.
Examples:
The short set of Buffalo Nickels is often defined to mean that the set is missing the expensive 3-legged Buffalo varieties and the 1935 doubled die.
