The 2019 West Point business strike America the Beautiful quarters have been dumped into bags of regular business strike circulated quarters for normal distribution. How/why/should these West Point quarters be titled as uncirculated as listed by many sellers on eBay, etc. ?? What would be the correct listing be for these West Point quarters ??
As far as I know, they shouldn't be listed as uncirculated because they are circulated (less than other mints though). As with ebay sellers, well most will say almost anything to sell something
If they are going from mint -> roller/distributor -> bank -> customer without being circulated...That is "uncirculated".
Good question. Yes, it's confusing I know. How can a coin that is found in "circulation", actually be "uncirculated"? It's an oxymoron. It's all based on grade, determined be the TPG'ers. Yes, sellers on eBay may and may not be listing raw coins found in circulation as uncirculated. Some are, some aren't. You have to know what you're looking at. Many of the W quarters found in circulation today are actually Mint State, a grade much higher then uncirculated...... go figure. I'm not the best person to articulate this conundrum but I think you get my point. Like @furryfrog02 indicates, if the coins actually never touch a consumers hand they are considered uncirculated. I'll also argue even if they do, they can still be found in circulation in Mint State condition. Why? Because I have some.
Circulated and uncirculated are not descriptors of whether the coin actually was handled by people, etc. The terms are descriptors of the condition of the coin (i.e. whether or not they have wear, dings, scratches, etc. - you know, the stuff that can happen to coins when they are used). In other words, coins that you get in change can be in uncirculated condition.
You can be the first person to get a coin from a roll the teller or clerk just broke open. All the coins are the same so just because they touch it and handed it to you does that mean that coin is now circulated? Circulated and uncirculated ate two words with different meanings. The meaning of each word is based on the surface of the coin. Touching the coin a few times does not necessarily make it more worn and that's circulation.
Mint state is the term they should use. If someone got them in change or even out of a bank wrapped roll, they got them from circulation.
If you hand me a coin, I have absolutely no idea what the history of that coin is. All I know is what I see on the coin. If I see visible traces of wear on the coin, I assume it was from circulation and call it circulated. If I don't see visible traces of wear on the coin, I call it uncirculated. For example, you can buy a coin directly from the mint (even out of a mint set, say), and put it in your pocket for 6 months. That coin will show signs of wear, but it never circulated. Would you say that coin was uncirculated? No, nobody would accept that. "Circulated" and "Uncirculated" tell you absolutely nothing about the history or source of the coin - they are visible indications of the current state of the coin. Maybe we could have picked better terms, but that's the way we call it. This is an endless source of confusion for some people, but it really shouldn't be. In numismatics, we have words that mean certain things in numismatics, and might mean something else outside of numismatics. That's just the way it is.