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Is "BU" still relevant?
topstuf
Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
I'm sure a lot of us remember BU as the pinnacle of coin condition.
Now it just seems to be nostalgia or at best an indication of a degree of inferiority.
Maybe we need new abbreviations
TU. Toned Uncirculated
MU. Monster Uncirculated
Maybe BULL. Brilliant Uncirculated Lovely Luster
???
Got better? 
2
Comments
I use BU to describe raw coins that are uncirculated and a high mint state (for error coins) maybe MS64 - MS65.
If a dealer uses the term correctly and honesty then this a good thing. If a dealer uses it as bs to sell a bad coin, then shame on that dealer.
I use the term for coins with nice luster lots of blast. Gem BU (MS65), CH BU (MS63)
MS65 Coins that are Gem BU with super luster, lots of blast are usually PQ. These coins trade at higher prices in the marketplace and are super for investment.
I place my bids and plan my buys accordingly in BU listings.. if it's early 80s or before then I generally assume it'd at least a low MS and take a closer look.
I've seen some "BU" that make me wonder if they catch 65 or 66.. On the other hand I see a lot of "contemporary BU" designations and the coin is hardly AU, sometimes cleaned EF.
How about "BU rub?"
Heh, every single coin that goes from the mint to me or from the mint to dealer to me is BU. I don't need a $30 plastic holder to tell me what everyone already knows.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Retiring at 55, what day is today?
Buffed Up
Bent Up
Beat Up
I also remember BU as a grade and marketing tool, particularly 'select BU'. BU frequently meant Beat Up, so I have no sense of nostalgia regarding this term.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
BU is still frequently used... especially at shows.... Cheers, RickO
Been Used
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
In the old days....
BU = MS60-62
CHBU = MS 63-64
GEMBU = MS65-66
SUPERBGEMBU = MS 67 +
At times I still use the term BU...
I am mostly unsure when seller list it as AU/BU. Is that mean would be buyer go ahead with the judgement?
I used it on an ebay listing once for a raw coin I sold; the buyer neg'd me several weeks later when the coin came back graded as a 64!
Seems most relevant when buying bulk lots of raw, but uncirculated silver dollars or possibly even half dollars.
For me it is a marketing term, not a condition of grade.
Descriptors have some relevancy. How much (relevance) is dependent on who is buying and who is selling, in my humble opinion.
https://acoinshop.com/ —-> https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
That may be the way it was in YOUR "old days" but it was not this way in mine.
Perhaps by adding the dates of the "old days" your post will be more relevant.
I remember when BU = Beat Up
BHNC #203
“BU” is an old school grading term that has pretty lost its relevance in this age of precision grading. In the old days, the cynical alternate term for it was “BU = Been Used” because you frequented saw it marked on “sliders,” coins that slid between AU and Uncirculated.
BU just meant the coin was uncirculated. It is just a way to be vague without adding any more adjectives to describe the coin.
Frank's comment above about "beat up" is true.
Uncirculated with a lot of marks.
Pete
Here's a "BU" Morgan, 1896, off the bay. Blurry photo in the bottom of a shoebox or something. Bids were low and slow. I ended up getting it thinking melt +$5 and free shipping was a lost 5 bucks.
I rather enjoy some BU listings..
Brilliant uncirculated is a term that used to be well received when I was a kid way before any grading companies made the seen. Of course back then nobody gave a hoot if a coin was cleaned or not, well, dipped. Dipping and eraser heads on pencils didn’t really show up,
Yes white was right and it seemed back then that’s what everyone wanted, blast white coins. I’m talking about back in the 50’s & 60’s.
BU, Brilliant Uncirculated, is a completely obsolete term in today's numismatic market. The term was never well defined even when it was in use (or misuse).