What is it about circulated coins?

shirohniichan · May 25, 2004 3:00PM

Circulated coins have a special attraction for me.

Is it their relative affordability? Their scarcity with eye appeal? The stories they must hold of their use in the time they were produced (the people who used them, the places they went, etc.)?

My favorite grade has usually been VF, but I found a decent XF 20 cent piece for my collection.

I wouldn't be able to afford one in a supergrade, but something about a nice circulated 19th century type coin excites me more than most BU's.

What is it?

Sylvestius · May 25, 2004 3:34PM

I like you prefer the circulated ones that have seen some history, but my favourite grade would be GVF-AEF. (Preferably the latter).

GoldCoinLover · May 25, 2004 4:09PM

They have many advantages. Especially being able to afford them. They cost less than higher grade coins, and more people have touched the coin. It's nice to know that a circulated coin has a higher chance of being held by a cowboy, the president, famous people, etc.

toyonakataro · May 25, 2004 5:25PM

I like raw circulated coins because I don't have to worry about putting fingerprints while holding them in my hands and holding an old circulated coin in my hand gives me a "warm" feeling........................but I also like BU coins.....in plastic holders

Philip · May 25, 2004 6:08PM

<< <i>but I also like plastic holders

>>

lordmarcovan · May 25, 2004 7:01PM

There's none of that "is it a high-end 64, PQ for the grade, or is it a low-end 65?" stuff.

Circulated coins have an aura to them. I like the look of a Morgan dollar in VG to Fine.

sumnom · May 25, 2004 7:38PM

I am with you all the way on this one, Shiroh. I love mid-grade circs. They look and feel wonderful.

Steve27 · May 25, 2004 8:42PM

Shiroh, I too like old circulated coins. For me, it's the idea that these coins were used by people who lived hundreds of years ago. I often wonder what these coins have seen. While mint state coins are beautiful as works of art, I only imagine them as being shut away in a dark places for long periods of time.

MacCrimmon · May 25, 2004 11:47PM

<< <i>While mint state coins are beautiful as works of art, I only imagine them as being shut away in a dark places for long periods of time. >>

Ah! But how have they survived the ravages of time? Who took the time to carefully put them away? What did that early collector do for a living? Was he a wealthy collector or a pauper that saved just one gem coin to look upon to give him hope for the future?

FWIW, my favorite circulated coin is a Wreath cent, Sheldon-9, which my grandfather freed from the earth while plowing the fields to lay in crops in 1925. Who, in the late 1700s/early 1800s dropped that old big penny?

MSD61 · May 26, 2004 1:33AM

All my world coins are un-slabbed and circulated. I love them this way and are kept in non-pvc flips. I like being able to take them from the flips and hold them and think of who had it be for me and where the coin had been. I like to hold the older British Indian coins I have and think to myself who carried it. Maybe even a British soldier who was serving there at the time

canadiancoinguy · May 26, 2004 8:14PM

I like coins in fine. Well worn, but still with fair details and usully quite affordable, if not cheap. A recent piece I bought was a 1809M Kingdom of Napoleon (Italy) 1 lire. 25000 mintage, I got one in fine for $15. Napoleon's still got hair detail, and it's passed through some hands, probably not until Italian unification, but for some time. Makes me wonder whay one could buy with it in Milan at the time.

ccrdragon · May 26, 2004 10:36PM

I love the circulated coins as well - I have a ton of them in my sets - but how can you possibly resist a piece like this?!?!?!?

111 years old!!!!!!

(edited because my brain and fingers aren't communicating this morning....)

windwhispersintrees · May 26, 2004 11:36PM

Circulated just fine by me......can leave one sitting on my keyboard to pick up & hold now and then. Can let my kids hold a piece of history and not have to worry if they drop it on the floor.

What is it about circulated coins?

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