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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 4070394, member: 76194&quot;]Not sure how long, but we do have some mid to late 4rth century coins that were revalued in the 6th century by Barbarian Kings in Italy. So presumably there were some coins in circulation 150+ years after they were struck.</p><p><br /></p><p>Keep in mind these things...there were a lot less people than today, so coins passed through less hands than modern coins, and ancients tended to hoard/store away and sometimes burry their coins for months/years for safekeeping...given that there were no banks and coins were much more valuable than coins are to us in a world ruled by paper money and digital currency. All that adds up to less continuous time in circulation and thus less wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>For us it is not uncommon to still find quarters and nickels from 50+ years ago in circulation. Now imagine if these coins were worth $5 and $25 a piece, and there were no banks in existence, so someone put some as savings in a box for 10 or 15 years until he made a big purchase, then the person who got them next had them buried in a jar for 5 years while he went on campaign with the army, and assume they spent a few weeks or months in a box in the homes of subsequent owners as savings until they were spent. Even though they are now 50 year old coins, their wear is not that significant, and can probably circulate for a few more decades just fine.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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