DELIBERATELY CIRCULATED

     I mentioned in a previous post that I've been carrying around various modern coins for the past several years because I want to see how they'll look worn down. Modern coins don't circulate anymore because their purchasing power has declined to the point of making them worthless except in aggregate. The largest regularly circulating coin in our pockets is the quarter-dollar and even that coin's purchasing power is now equivalent to that of the cent 100 years ago so imagine what that makes our still produced cents, nickels, and dimes. The average price of an item at my store hovers between $2.18 and $2.25. There's no place for anything below a quarter anymore and possibly (arguably) under a half-dollar.

     Anywho, because of this, I'm convinced that our modern coins will never become worn down from circulation so I'm doing it for them by carrying a select few in my pocket every day. I walk three miles a day to and fro work and am constantly on the move at my job so these coins "circulate" pretty well. Unfortunately I never made note of when I started doing this. Only the 2010 cent can be traced to around April of that year since that's when I first found one. The latest additions to my long-term patience project have been the 1978 Eisenhower dollar (replacing the 2007 SAE I was carrying for a few years), the 2009-P nickel, and the four different 2009 cent designs. I want to carry a 1978 half dollar but I bring half dollars in every night to work to give out in change so I'd hate to accidentally give it out.

     Photographing these coins in a way which will reveal their relief and wear is difficult as they are highly reflective. I feel I got some acceptable, though not great, results by propping them up on a nickel and  having the light I was using diffuse through some translucent plastic. Their current states will be presented below.

     Coins are designed to last about 40 years in circulation so this is truly a long-term patience project as I have called it :-)

Click on the images to ENLARGE

1978-D Eisenhower Dollar: about a year's wear

 The last of the "big" dollars. It's also my birth year so I have a certain fondness for the coin. :-)

1999-P Susan B. Anthony Dollar:  3-4 years wear

 I chose the 1999 SBA dollar because it was the only mini dollar ever made because it was wanted. The 1979, 1980, and 1981 were rejected by the public before production ceased entirely. Coin-Op businesses and mass transit authorities slowly drew down the stock of coins and in 1999, more were needed. The mint balked at first since it had been preparing the Sacagawea Dollar for release in 2000, but when the mint was sued, they relented and produced about 50 million 1999 dated dollars. Proof that they were not anticipated was their lack of inclusion in the 1999 mint and proof sets. They had to be released as a separate issue. For this reason alone, I continue to advocate that such sets should be released the following year just in case something like that happens again.

2001-P Jefferson Nickel: 3-4 years wear

It wasn't my intention to carry the 2001 nickel. It was one of my filler coins in case I needed it to switch out with a desired nickel at work. Turns out I went months without needing it so I added it to the circulation pile using the rationalization that I've never seen a worn-down shallow relief Jefferson nickel.

2005-P Jefferson Nickel [1st issue]: 3-4 years wear

2005-P Jefferson Nickel [2nd issue] : 3-4 years wear

2009-P Jefferson Nickel : about one year's wear

 I doubt I'll ever see any of what will likely be the final design of any U.S. nickel wear down either. I chose a 2009 dated one because it is infrequently encountered in change. Coins of 2009 had drastically reduced production on account of the "Great Recession" - is that what it's officially called now?

2009 Lincoln Cent [1st issue] : about one year's wear

2009 Lincoln Cent [2nd issue] : about one year's wear

2009 Lincoln Cent [3rd issue] : about one year's wear

2009 Lincoln Cent [final issue] : about one year's wear

 All the Lincoln bicentennial designs collectively I feel will never circulate so I'm doing it myself. I don't know why I delayed so long to circulate them. As single year designs, they were natural choices.

1974-S Lincoln Cent : 3-4 years wear

 I've never seen a worn-out Lincoln Memorial cent and the series began production in 1959. Only the first few years tend to show any wear at all leading me to conclude that cents stopped circulating around 1964. Even though cents continue to be produced by the billions annually, their lack of purchasing power causes them to be hoarded rather than spent so the coin's attrition rate is nearly 100%. Many cents get used only once and remain around in jars and dishes for month's at a time before getting spent again. I'm guessing this process got started in the 1960s and only accelerated once vending machines and pay phones stopped taking them. I've never seen a vending machine accept cents in all of my living memory (about 30 years). I chose 1974 because I feel that this year got Lincoln's design perfectly. The pictured coin is beat up, but if you should find a 1974 cent in your pocket, appreciate its sculpture. The mint did a fantastic job that year in my opinion. I chose the San Francisco mint because I don't see the S-coins too often so it'd be less likely I'd accidentally spend it.

2010 Lincoln Cent : 3 years wear

Again, I highly doubt this coin will ever receive noticeable wear in circulation so I'm doing it myself. Also, I'll find out if these copper-veneered zinc cents even CAN take heavy amounts of circulation wear. Zinc corrodes quickly when exposed to moisture, turning powdery. The copper on cents made since 1982 is microscopically thin. The coin already looks gray in some spots along the rim so we'll see what happens. A fun thing to note is the denomination ONE CENT is actually raised on the banner leaving the possibility that as the coin takes wear, it will disappear like the date on Buffalo nickels and Standing Liberty quarters of yesteryear.

1999-P New Jersey quarter : about 3 years wear

      Again, I don't think any of the state quarters will ever receive appreciable wear despite the quarter being the "workhorse" of the coin-based economy. In my opinion, quarters stopped circulating around 1991 [for the nickel, I would say 1971 and the dime, 1982]. Clad quarters have been around since 1965 so the earliest dates should be worn flat now, but I've never seen a clad quarter worn flat. The ones from the 1960s have considerable wear but very rarely have I seen one where the rim has worn into the edge lettering. By the 1990s, they start showing little wear at all despite being over twenty years old in some cases.
     Anyways, I picked the NJ quarter because that's my home state. When the NJ America the Beautiful quarter is released in 2017, I'll start carrying one of those too.

2007 Silver American Eagle : 3-4 years wear (currently halted)

      This was the first coin I carried around. I got it as a freebie for renewing my subscription to a coin newspaper. I didn't want the coin so I thought to carry it around. I was the victim of rising silver prices though. I was supposed to get three, one for each year 2007-2009 but the 2009 never came because of silver's rising price. The coins cost more than a year's subscription at that point.
      The coin being pure silver, is very soft, so it takes wear easily. Even after just a few years several details have been lost and E PLURIBUS UNUM on the banner on the reverse is showing signs of disappearing.

Angel Token : a few week's wear

      I remember getting one of these in a received piece of junk mail. I found this one walking to work and decided to add it to the pile as a goof. My only example of exonumia in this project :-)
      The design is the same on the reverse though slightly scuffed as that was the surface in contact with the street. I'm sure it's bronze-plated but I don't know what the core metal is. It feels too heavy to be aluminum and isn't magnetic ruling out steel and nickel.

If I'm still blogging in a few years, I'll do an update :-)