What coin was used the most?

Vetter

Thinking back to all the coins I’ve seen over the years, I have to say the Buffalo Nickel was used the most. No other coin is more readily available as a slick than the Buffalo. Next in line I would say is the Standing Liberty Quarter. It seems there are more worn out SLQ than any other silver coin. Both of these coins have beautiful designs but seem to wear the fastest of any other coin I can think of. Your thoughts?

TurtleCat

Both the buffalo and SLQ also had designs that lent themselves to wearing faster than others. I think each era/generation could have a different answer.

amwldcoin

I feel the Barber Half is a strong contender as well as the other Barbers. They have to be one of the longest series timewise that regularly circulated.

Zoins

If you are going by wear, some coins just didn't wear as well as others.

lkeigwin

The Lincoln cent.
Lance.

coastaljerseyguy

@TurtleCat said:
Both the buffalo and SLQ also had designs that lent themselves to wearing faster than others. I think each era/generation could have a different answer.

Agree, the placement of the date on the design and not on the flat surface to offer protection from wear caused the dates to wear out more than most other coinage. I say in general the lower denominations circulated the most, pennies to quarters.

BillJones

@lkeigwin said:
The Lincoln cent.
Lance.

Yes, in their day, when the cent could buy something, they saw a lot of use. Now, they mostly sit in jars.

One of the problems with the "renaissance era coins" was that their designs were too hard to strike and did not wear well. The Standing Liberty Quarter and the Buffalo Nickel were the worst offenders. They were great works of art but lacked practicality.

Zoins

@BillJones said:

@lkeigwin said:
The Lincoln cent.
Lance.

Yes, in their day, when the cent could buy something, they saw a lot of use. Now, they mostly sit in jars.

One of the problems with the "renaissance era coins" was that their designs were too hard to strike and did not wear well. The Standing Liberty Quarter and the Buffalo Nickel were the worst offenders. They were great works of art but lacked practicality.

I wonder how their designs would survive minted as clad coinage.

BillJones

I wonder how their designs would survive minted as clad coinage.

The copper-nickel alloy is hard, but modern technology has mostly fixed the problem. The mint had a hard time producing the Buffalo Nickel. It's one of the reasons why the design was dropped after 26 years. If the Standing Liberty Quarter had been struck on a copper-nickel planchet, the results would have been even worse.

vulcanize

Interesting. I would have thought it was the V nickel at the turn of the centuryafter all the market recession and reconstruction woes.

ricko

The two factors, material and usage are not equal. Silver wears easier than nickel, but the nickel design is prone to fast wear due to high points. Neither factor is necessarily - or solely - due to usage. Pocket and purse wear is not usage, but certainly is another direct wear component. Cheers, RickO

WAYNEAS

Material composition and detail will wear differently.
A silver dime will wear faster than a silver nickel.
Thickness and size make a difference also.
Wayne

braddick

Clad quarters.

moursund

How about coin with least use? Ike or SBA perhaps? Not readily accepted, mostly stayed at banks...

lkenefic

Middle and Late Date Large Cents seem to have been circulated a lot. I can readily find many in the F2 to VG8 range, but finding specimens that are lightly circulated is a bit more difficult.

vulcanize

@moursund said:
How about coin with least use? Ike or SBA perhaps? Not readily accepted, mostly stayed at banks...

Quite a few of the older coinage had little usage too.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49234/10-lesser-known-us-coins

jesbroken

I found a 1968 S Lincoln cent in change the other day and it look mid AU with luster. Unbelieveable, that a 54 year old coin could remain in that condition. Now I realize that most likely it was in a jar for the most part of that period, but it was in change that day.
Jim

MarkW63

I'd say in the early 1900's it would have to be,

Pennies had purchase power, they're were LOTS of 1cent items, and even pretty young kids could walk into a store with 3 or 4 Lincolns and have the clerk's attention!
Now, in much later years the Pennies just makes change.
I've seen many Lincoln's from 1909 through 1930 worn very thin!
As I understand it the SLQ quarters had a design change due to ware issues. The Buffalo Nickels had the same problem with the style an application of the date, it just worn out.