How long does it take a coin in normal circulation to wear down...

TheLiberator

to a lower grade? Say...very fine. Doesn anyone have a fairly acurate estimate on this? Maybe you pocket piece people? I mean, it seems to me, for metal to wear smooth, it had to be handled A LOT. These colonial coins that are so worn down...were they really in circulation for decades?

braddick

Copper? Nickel? Silver? Gold? Clad? Each has its own characteristics as to wear.

It's interesting that Lincoln cents as far back as the sixties are still routinely found in circulation with XF details. 40 years yet barely worn at all. In fact, I'd challenge anyone to locate an AG03 or so, problem free, Memorial cent. I have yet to do so.

291fifth

Much depends on the velocity of use. When coins are of an actively used denomination they will tend to wear down faster. An example today might be quarters. Most people actively spend them so their velocity of use is high. Cents, on the other hand, tend to be tossed into jars and just sit. They see very little use beyond their first transaction. These are not wearing down much at all. It wasn't always like this. When I started collecting in the early 1960's, 40 year old cents, when found in circulation, were usually heavily worn. The cent still had some real value and would be spent rather than casually hoarded.

coppercoins

How many rubs to the center of a (fill in the blank) coin?

That question has as many answers as there are coins and methods of rubbing them down.

Some take many, many years....some take very little time. Take two 1971 half dollars straight out of a BU roll. Stick one of them in a lady's coin purse and tell her to keep it there for good luck. Take the other and drop it into a slot machine in Tunica. I guarantee within six months you'll tell a huge difference.

cladking

The primary determinants are velocity and composition. Velocity can be nearly identical
across an entire series like clad quarters or highly dependent on other factors or chance
for something like early Morgan dollars. Velocity has seasonal and generational compo-
nents caused by rapid turnover a Christmas time and much slower rates in March and April.
It changes over long periods of time because of the way coins are carried and used. Thirty
years ago most men carried large amounts of coins in trouser pockets where they tended
to get lots of wear. Now days both men and women often carry purses, coin wallets, or
credit cards which will tend to slow the rate of turnover. Coins used to get most of their
wear in the pockets of workmen or being slid on retail counters. Now days they get more
wear going through counters and machines.

There is also a great deal of variation in the way a coin passes through the defined grades.
A coin which wears at exactly the same rate will spend much longer in some grades than it
does in others and this will vary somewhat from one series to another because the definitions
of grades are based on visable detail rather than total wear and this detail loss will vary from
one series to another.

It requires an average of five or six transactions to knock a clad quarter out of unc. A silver
half can easily wear an entire grade in the pockets of a laborer for a day. Of course wider
grades like G or AG will require much longer. An extremely well worn 1965 quarter will likely
have been involved in about 10,000 transactions and been through a counter another 3,000
times or so. The extreme edge wear on these is the result of the encounters with counters
and vending machines.

Generally coins get very little wear after they no longer circulate. There are a handfull of ex-
ception in darkside coins but I'm aware of no US coins like this.

Colorfulcoins

I'm with Braddick..........would love to see a AG03 memorial cent !!!!

lordmarcovan

Good post as usual by Cladking.

I'm sure weight has something to do with it, too- there seen to be a lot of really slick silver dollars and $20 gold pieces out there.


This 'un was obviously a pocket piece for some time before it found its way to my Holey Coin Vest.




I have thought on this topic before, as it relates to some of my detector finds. By trying to figure out how long it took a coin to reach a certain grade, I have some idea of when it was lost. For example, my friends here have found several lovely EF-AU cents from the late 1790's (including this one, which I've posted many times before).

Let's say I dig a nice 1798 Draped Bust cent, for example (and one day I will, as I have seen at least five or six that others have found). When was it lost? If it has AU details, was it lost around 1800? 1805? And what if it is EF? Does that mean it circulated for ten or fifteen years or so before being lost around the time of the War of 1812? It's just idle speculation, but part of the fun of old coins, particularly the dug ones, is trying to imagine their past.

TheLiberator

Thanks for all the info guys! This turned out to be a really neat and informative thread! Cheers!