Copies and originals
The first certificate of each form issued is the Original. Those issued after it are copies, numbered as issued. Copies are fully valid. They are copies.
Every certificate is numbered as it is issued, across the whole building. The first Applicant ever to earn one holds the Original. Everyone after holds Copy No. 2, Copy No. 3, and so on. Your copy is on the form.
Its rarity is the share of all Applicants who hold it:
- Common: more than half.
- Uncommon: more than 10%, up to half.
- Rare: more than 1%, up to 10%.
- Classified: 1% or fewer.
Rarity changes as more Applicants earn a certificate, so a Rare one today may be Common next month.
Originals have their own board on the Registry. The front of your journal counts yours and shows the one you hold that the fewest others do.
An Office copy has no number. It was issued by staff, not earned. It opens doors, but it does not count toward your rank, your vouchers or the Registry.
Staff, and accounts left out of the Registry, never hold numbered copies, so they cannot take an Original from anybody. If an account is left out after the fact, its numbers are given up and everybody behind it moves up one. So an Original can, now and then, change hands.