Coated & Uncoated swatches, Why do we have both?

Question

I was a pressman for 15 years so I understand what the differences are in the Pantone books and why they are needed when printing but what is the reason we have separate libraries for coated and uncoated Pantone colors for digital work? I have a glossy screen at work and a matte screen at home, do I need to change swatches when I take work home? :D
A funny story about colors, I had a marketing manager I worked with for a while who could not comprehend how prepress worked. I would send vector files to a screen printer in black as a matter of course but the manager would freak out and tell me to send the files in the color she wanted the ink to be. No amount of explaining could convince her that we would not receive black printed t-shirts when we specified blue ink on the work order. Guh. Then she tried to blame me when one batch of shirts came back in a brighter green than she liked. I showed her that the PMS we ordered was not what we got back and that the printer would reprint with no problems.
She left to go work in retail. g'bye!

Answer 1

>they take care of it.
This is all that counts. I started as a teenager in the business of graphic arts but did not have my first experience on press until I was about twenty, that was 1965, already having 4 years expereince mostly with mechanical art and paste ups, paste sticks hadn't been invented but we did have rubber cement and rulling pens and rapidograph pens as well.
Which were a technological advance over the ruling pen but spilling ink was an often crash like experience that made the computer a much needed replacement. But there are crashes and lost of work. Archiving work was also a problem and looking for old art work was often a futile experience.
So the more things change the more they are the same.
You zstill have to understand what makes things happen.
I worked over the years with many professionals from Europe where there is a pretense to not even know the ins and outs of tyhe other guys field. A graphic designer does not tell the press people how to run the press or suggest another way of doing it you can only tell them what they have to accomplish, they have to do it. A good trade off you can go to dinner and not worry about it.
But here in the U.S. you have to tell them or they do not feel they have to do it it is your responsibility to make certain you have everything right. Anything out of place then they will not bother to point it out or do anything aboput it. Always looking for an opportunity to charge more.
I am basuically a photographer now and seldom even make prints for my clients I sell them scans or charge for any prep work, like retouching, and supply them with the files.
I leave them with the control of the images after that and for any publications I cvontribute to I never interfere with the production of the images, since most of them are European or Japanese I seldom have a problem with reproduction.
So I find myself in a similar situation as you find yourself, it is best to know however whezn things do go wrong as to why that has happen and give directions on how to correct or on how to avoid such problems.
Again the more things change the more they are the same.
You still need the knowledge and experience.
There were always people whot thought well you just give it to the printer, it's simple