The Objective Intent Test

John and Sarah enter a contract under which John agrees to purchase Sarah's Swiss coin collection.

Sarah in fact has two distinct collections of Swiss coins one of pre-1900 coins, and one of post-1900 coins.

Suppose John had said at the beginning of their negotiations, "I am only interested in the pre-1900 collection." During their negotiations, they started using "Swiss coin collection" to mean the pre-1900 Swiss coin collection, and, each of them sent the other an email about this fact just so there would be no confusion in what they were talking about.

Under the Objective Intent Test, "Swiss coin collection" means

the post-1900 collection.

the pre-1900 collection.