... Why Unc coins found in circulation are still called Unc, when they have "circulated"? I know the difference between the two, but it is one of the crazy questions that comes to in the middle of the night. Sent from my A463BG using Tapatalk
Honestly, no.... and because it's a term used to describe a coin's condition/state and not where it's been. I do understand your point though.
I have a few hundred rolls of uncirculated 2004-2006 Westward Journey nickels. Suppose I decided to use some of the rolls to buy a few things at the grocery store. Do you think they would all be "circulated" once the cashier breaks them open? Chris
I think this thread points out, already, why we have a coin grading system, that despite its faults, still is a pretty good deal for the hobby.
It's quite simple, it's because a coin can have actually been in circulation and yet not have any wear on it. Well, it appears you and I are in agreement. Unfortunately the TPGs are not in agreement with us. For the TPGs claim that wear isn't wear unless it occurs while a coin is in circulation. Of course there is absolutely no way of determining how and where a coin got its wear, but then that is how the TPGs manage to grade coins as MS that have obvious wear on them. Isn't it just great how that works !
Funny, my wife was just asking me the same thing. I had to read her the description of coin grades from the red book, ha ha. I agree, it's a name of a grade rather than a determination of where a coin has or has not been.
"Uncirculated" is a description of the coin's condition and not its history. After all, if I were to pick up a coin I had never before seen I would have to call it "uncirculated" or not based on that because I cannot know its history.
This is an item in my talk entitled, "Dumb Stuff (I only sometimes use "Stuff") Coin Collectors Say". The word "Uncirculated" needs to be banished from our language and replaced with "Mint State", which also does not mean "Pennsylvania, Colorado, New York or California". "Uncirculated" has never been a statement of a coin's whereabouts and/or history, and has always been a condition per se, but new people coming into the field apparently have an obligation to repeat previous generations' misapplications of terminology. Why read a book when you can just assume stuff, right?
Absolutely this is cabinet friction, if by cabinet you mean years of banging around against other coins in hundreds of people's pockets. Or.... the cabinet might contain a rock tumbler with coarse grit in it.
How about if they DON'T open the roll...still circulated? How many angels CAN dance on the head of a pin?
So, if it is not "Mint State", then it must be "Former Mint State" which also does not imply that it was North Carolina, Georgia or Louisiana. Chris