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Message:: [QUOTE="ewomack, post: 2669073, member: 15588"]This rather dull but precise definition says a lot: Coin: a flat, typically round piece of metal with an official stamp, used as money. The "typically" is important here because the world has also seen square, oblong, elliptical, polygonal, animal-shaped, guitar-shaped and just about any shape one can imagine coins made out of countless types of material, even ceramics. I would say that if you can spend it, whether you actually would or not, and it's not a bill, then it's likely a coin. You could bring a proof coin to a store and spend it. You may have trouble spending a commemorative coin, but most of them have legal tender status, as do many bullion issues. Though, as already suggested, it wouldn't exactly qualify as wise money management to use a Silver Eagle to buy $1 worth of stuff, much less to use a gold eagle for a $50 purchase. But supposedly, so I've read and heard, they are legal tender, which seems to make them coins. Sadly, people seem to have enough trouble using $2 bills in the US, so who knows what would happen if someone tried to spend a Mark Twain commemorative? The thought alone gives me hives.[/QUOTE]