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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 2957430, member: 68&quot;]This is a very complex question and the answers you seek can&#039;t be formatted into a single post. </p><p><br /></p><p>Each type of coin (date, mm, design etc) will circulate differently based on countless variables mostly having to do with the behavior of the group that uses them.&nbsp;&nbsp; Each also starts out is a pattern where individuals with similar characteristics (successive strikes perhaps) end up in similar locations and then begin a random walk if they aren&#039;t being removed by collectors.&nbsp; For most long lived series these patterns and the nature of the walk can vary considerably over time.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>As ArthurK11 suggested the best way to think of this is in &quot;transaction&quot; which I define as each instance of a change in ownership.&nbsp;&nbsp; The nature of these changes and the forces to which a specific coin or type is exposed determines the rate o wear.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Coins used to jingle in pockets of people doing strenuous work and individual coins would always be exposed to this at least once even before they wore to VF (&#039;32 quarter or instance).&nbsp; High grades exist because the FED and mint didn&#039;t rotate stocks and because people collected the coins.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Now days stocks are recycled and most have a cycle of about three years once they get in storage or are produced.&nbsp;&nbsp; This wears the coins down very evenly over the long term.&nbsp; At any given time there are usually no more than about 7% of quarters in government hands. Most of the rest are &quot;actively&quot; circulating but there are significant percentages that spend an average of a year sitting idle in jars and dresser tops. </p><p><br /></p><p>Quarters require an average of about 6 transactions to be knocked out of Unc now and become &quot;sliders&quot;.&nbsp; It takes about 20 more to knock a Gem into AU-58 and another 120 to get it to XF.&nbsp; This is not so highly variable as it once was because they are just used to make change now and much of their wear comes from counting machines and being dumped into or spat out by one.&nbsp;&nbsp; Wear came much faster with silver because it was so soft and because it had a very high velocity.&nbsp; It wouldn&#039;t been unusual for a quarter to make four transactions a day in 1932 but now they average only about 5 per month.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Dimes wear a little&nbsp; more slowly due to their lesser weight.&nbsp; As a group they wear much more slowly because they are more likely to sit out of circulation longer.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It should be remembered that even things like attrition affect coins that remain through various processes.&nbsp; There are only averages and each individual coin is unique.&nbsp; Each series undergoes changes with time and some of these changes and causes can be deduced by studying surviving examples.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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