How much metal can a silver coin lose and still be considered problem free?
Coinstartled
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I recall it being stated that a worn smooth coin has a loss of about 7% of metal. An AG or poor is probably what 3 or 4%? Absence of metal is not a criteria for a non grade, only the consistency of the wear. Cleaning and scratching bad, worn out good......or about good.
*I may have overstated the percentages of metal loss and would appreciate the opinions of the forum intelligentsia.
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Just did it.
It's 6.768% loss.
Okay folks. It must be good Will Hunting right here on the forum. Very well done!
^ Post of the day....I'll shut up now!
^
Are you sure you should be a posting a love note from Einstein to his mistress?
Could easily lose 10% of it's weight and still be a gradeable PO1.
Your 7% figure varies widely between denominations/series and would be closer to a minimum weight lose for a "slick" than a maximum.
Morgan silver dollars are supposed to weigh around 26.73 gm.
My grandmother lived near Reno and pulled these worn specimens out of circulation in the 1960's along with many others.
They no doubt were used at the casinos there.
I graded them using the Redbook grades.
United States Dollar 1896-O Very Fine 26.20 gm
98% of normal
United States Dollar 1897-O Fine 25.94 gm
97% of normal
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I've had po01 or close barber and standing liberty quarters that weighed closer to 5 grams than they did to 6.25
Successful trades.... MichaelDixon,
So a twenty percent decline. Suppose it makes sense as the fractional coins would have more relief vs size that the larger dollar would.
WillieBoyd....thank you for the numbers on the Morgans.
Good info here http://about.ag/silverbags.htm on $1000 face bags average loss.... I used to try mostly for halves as they seemed to lose the lease weight without the dollar coin premium for junk 90%.... sorry got really far off the problem free part
Successful trades.... MichaelDixon,
For my personal standards, metal loss is a feature that affects my evaluation likely far more than it does TPG's. Once a coin goes below XF45, I lose interest - rapidly as the grade decreases. While I am not a grade chaser, I use that as a standard (albeit we know there is fluidity in grades). I like my coins to have well defined features and clean surfaces. Cheers, RickO
The US Mint did several sampling studies on gold coins during the 19th century. maybe I can find something that is small enough to post.
I got a headache just looking at that.
Math courses that featured formulas like that drove me crazy in college.
Very scientific thread, I like it.
What if it is moving at the speed of light? I guess it is all relative.
_How much metal can a silver coin lose and still be considered problem free?
_
A very small (tiny) amount of metal is actually lost by a circulating coin. The metal on a coin is mostly displaced from higher to lower areas through wear by circulating for a long time. I proved this to myself by conducting careful weight experiments with pennies a few years ago. Some of the extremely well-worn pennies that I weighed actually weighed more than new ones!
I never have considered simple (without damage) heavy circulation wear on a coin a problem.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
@CoinsAndMoreCoins that is so true , or is it , not sure anymore
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I know it's not silver, but my avatar, one of the most worn Buffaloes I've seen, has lost 8.2% of its weight (4.59 g).
Interesting perspective. Perhaps copper wears differently than silver in that regard.
Circulated Barbers can lose quite a bit, but not as much at it looks. You can usually fit $7 or $8 face value of Barber Dimes in a $5 dime tube as the worn dimes get pretty thin, but most likely the coins have still only lost less than 10% of their weight. The rims wear off first and that allows so many to stack.
Here's a thread I did a few years ago where I weighed $50 face value of the different Barber denominations.
Circulated Barber Coinage Weight Loss Report
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Thank you Illini. Maybe 90% silver should be advertised as 81% silver!
(I would put in the wink guy but they look too cheesy now.)
Either you don't collect chain cents, or you are very wealthy
@ChrisRx.... I do have different standards for old copper...
Cheers, RickO