After a few years living in Denver, i finally took a tour of the US mint the other day! It was awesome and I recommend it for everyone. At the end of the tour, there was a machine that gave 4 quarters for a dollar - brand new uncirculated state quarters directly from the US mint. Awesome. There was a sign on the machine that said "These coins are not, from a strictly numismatic definition, uncirculated coins. Uncirculated coins are minted differently to give those coins higher relief". This is just a rough approximation, I didn't actually write the statement down verbatim. I understand the uncirculated coins from the little change machine at the end of the tour are different than the uncirculated coins that go in the uncirculated mint sets. We saw the machines that make & package the US mint sets, and those coins are clearly treated differently than the mass produced quarters we spend every day. Here is my question, aren't the uncirculated coins coming out of the machine essentially the same as the uncirculated bank rolls of the state quarters - the ones sold in coin shops (and on ebay) as uncirculated 'BU' state quarters?
It appears the mint is trying to redefine the term "uncirculated". With the 2010 offerings for the parks quarters, the mint defines the uncirculated coins to be what were called satin finish coins last year. And what collectors know to be uncirculated, to be business strikes. Leave it to the mint to confuse things further!
Your comment makes a lot of sense. Basically the bottom line I got after reading their statement was "You can buy these quarters for twenty five cents but they are not nearly the same quality we are selling for a much higher cost in the display case over there". I got $5 worth of the Yellowstone quarters from the machine and looked through them for errors (didn't find any). I still have some BU quarters long before most my friends will have any.
Yes, the mint does not use the term Uncirculated the same way the numismatic community does (Which makes it bad that they then make the implied impression that thier use of the term is the correct numismatic usage) Internally at the mint they use the term Uncirculated to mean ONLY those coins intended for mint sets and the satin finish commemorative dollars and non-proofs intended for special sets etc. The Mint's term for what we call Uncirculated business strikes is "circulated coin". Which is what we called used coins showing wear.
For those further east, the mint in Philadelphia has such a machine too. Last month I visited the place, and (at the store) asked about the new quarters. The lady said pretty much what you experienced - no, we do not have any unc. pieces or sets here, but you can get four "basically non circulated" (or so, don't remember the exact words either) over there ... And pointed at a machine in the lobby where you enter a $1 note and get four park quarters back. What I got in May was the Hot Springs quarters - all "P" of course. Guess the differentiation between "unc" (raw uncirculated pieces) and "BU" (the term I usually find being used for sets) makes some sense. Christian
I can only assume that the Mint employees who have contact with the public and those who prepare the written explanations for public viewing are either non-collectors or they do not know anything about the grading services, but you would think that the higher-ups who train the employees and/or approve written explanations would. Chris
