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<p>[QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 3502780, member: 57463"]<font face="Georgia"><font size="5">As this is far outside my areas of expertise or interest, I will offer my opinion. Though apparently dating from 1986, I never knew the term "cabinet friction" until I worked at <i>Coin World</i> (1999-2000). With ancients, I was never in the markets for coins where it mattered. (I mean, we dig them out of the ground, right? Some come from known and famous collections, but that only means they were dug out of the ground a long time ago.) Anyway, I was told by another page editor, <i>sotte voce</i> and not to be repeated, that "cabinet friction" is used by unscrupulous resellers to push About Unc coins as Uncirculated.</font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5">That would be especially true with the invention of holders, commercially sized storage boxes, plastic flips, plastic cases, and all the rest. "Cabinet friction" smacks of an old collection in a wooden case with felt lining. Very nice. But it does not apply to 20th century coins. </font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5">As the article said:</font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font size="5"><font face="Arial">“An uncirculated coin is a newly minted coin that finds its way into the usual trade channels, after having passed from the mints to the Federal Reserve banks and respective member banks. Moreover those coins, originally new but handled down from collector to collector through generations and which, after years of numismatic handling, acquire “cabinet friction” are considered as uncirculated.”</font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5">The first part of that would apply only to coins minted since the invention of the Federal Reserve System and its superposition over banking in the wake of the Great Depression. It would not apply to the next part, which does describe Bust Half Dollars, Seated Quarters, Civil War Tokens, and much else of great interest to collectors of American coins. </font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5">Again, the phrase "cabinet friction" makes it sound as if this Bust Half Dollar was in Mickley's cabinet and then Beistle's cabinet but not Overton's (because he did not have an actual cabinet) and now it is for sale. In fact, unless you can prove otherwise<b> "cabinet friction" should be called "collector wear."</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5"><br /></font></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><font size="5">The quote above does touch (to make a pun) on an aspect of the phrase and the hobby. We pass coins from hand to hand, albeit in holders. But, eventually, as with "toning" <b>wear</b> is something that <b>must</b> happen to any object that leaves its time and place of origin. I am a writer. But my degrees are in criminology. (Today, I write for a protective agency.) Locard's rule says: <b>"Every contact leaves a trace."</b> In theory, with the right instrumentation, you could find every place that every nominally Uncirculated coin with so-called "cabinet friction" has been... every hand, every box, every flip, every TPG tomb that wore it down</font><font size="3"> just a little bit...</font></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 3502780, member: 57463"][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=5]As this is far outside my areas of expertise or interest, I will offer my opinion. Though apparently dating from 1986, I never knew the term "cabinet friction" until I worked at [I]Coin World[/I] (1999-2000). With ancients, I was never in the markets for coins where it mattered. (I mean, we dig them out of the ground, right? Some come from known and famous collections, but that only means they were dug out of the ground a long time ago.) Anyway, I was told by another page editor, [I]sotte voce[/I] and not to be repeated, that "cabinet friction" is used by unscrupulous resellers to push About Unc coins as Uncirculated. That would be especially true with the invention of holders, commercially sized storage boxes, plastic flips, plastic cases, and all the rest. "Cabinet friction" smacks of an old collection in a wooden case with felt lining. Very nice. But it does not apply to 20th century coins. As the article said: [/SIZE][/FONT] [SIZE=5][FONT=Arial]“An uncirculated coin is a newly minted coin that finds its way into the usual trade channels, after having passed from the mints to the Federal Reserve banks and respective member banks. Moreover those coins, originally new but handled down from collector to collector through generations and which, after years of numismatic handling, acquire “cabinet friction” are considered as uncirculated.”[/FONT][/SIZE] [FONT=Georgia][SIZE=5] The first part of that would apply only to coins minted since the invention of the Federal Reserve System and its superposition over banking in the wake of the Great Depression. It would not apply to the next part, which does describe Bust Half Dollars, Seated Quarters, Civil War Tokens, and much else of great interest to collectors of American coins. Again, the phrase "cabinet friction" makes it sound as if this Bust Half Dollar was in Mickley's cabinet and then Beistle's cabinet but not Overton's (because he did not have an actual cabinet) and now it is for sale. In fact, unless you can prove otherwise[B] "cabinet friction" should be called "collector wear."[/B] The quote above does touch (to make a pun) on an aspect of the phrase and the hobby. We pass coins from hand to hand, albeit in holders. But, eventually, as with "toning" [B]wear[/B] is something that [B]must[/B] happen to any object that leaves its time and place of origin. I am a writer. But my degrees are in criminology. (Today, I write for a protective agency.) Locard's rule says: [B]"Every contact leaves a trace."[/B] In theory, with the right instrumentation, you could find every place that every nominally Uncirculated coin with so-called "cabinet friction" has been... every hand, every box, every flip, every TPG tomb that wore it down[/SIZE][SIZE=3] just a little bit...[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]
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