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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 147976, member: 68&quot;]I define circulation as the random movement of coins in commerce.&nbsp; A 1992 nickel randomly moves from one transaction or change jar to the next.&nbsp; If it sits still too long for any reason then it&#039;s no longer in circulation.&nbsp; If a collector pushes it into a folder it&#039;s not circulating.&nbsp; If the general public suddenly decides &#039;92 nickels are desirable and begin removing them then they are no longer circulating once the percentage in circulation stabilizes.&nbsp; For instance all through the 1980&#039;s the public horded bicentennial quarters.&nbsp; At any given time about 20% of the surviving mintage was in circulation.&nbsp; The coin was in circulation to a degree but it did not circulate freely.&nbsp; The same thing occurs with the wheat cent.&nbsp; These are being yanked from circulation by millions of people.&nbsp; When they discover their specimen has no value then it&#039;s likely to go back into change.&nbsp; The percentage in circulation is well under .1%. One can say the coin can be found in circulation but it&#039;s not really circulating.&nbsp; The percentage in change remains remarkably stable over time in most locations.&nbsp; It is possible to get temporal or local aberrations but wheat cents don&#039;t truly circulate any longer.&nbsp; The same is true for silver.&nbsp; The last silver coin was plucked from circulation decades ago.&nbsp; When you see one now it&#039;s only because someone who plucked it decided to spend it or it was accidently spent.&nbsp; There is a small probability that it came from a lot of coins that has been in a piggy bank or the like for decades, but for every silver coin from this source there are probably hundreds of silver coins in circulation from someone who just didn&#039;t want to bother taking it to the coin shop to sell.&nbsp; There may have been a few buffalos still circulating up to about &#039;73 but it was very few and they had been picked over by collectors.&nbsp; You might find a buffalo in change tomorrow but they still no longer circulate.&nbsp; You might find a silver coin but they haven&#039;t circulated since 1970.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>For all I know you might just find an 1804 dollar but there&#039;s no doubt it hasn&#039;t been circulating for 200 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think of it this way.&nbsp; If a coin has a 1% chance of being found by a collector and removed, then after 100 transactions there is a high probability that it will be gone.&nbsp; After 1000 transactions every single one will be gone no matter how many millions were placed into circulation.&nbsp; These coins have experienced their ten &quot;deaths&quot; and no longer circulate.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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