My last guide promised that I would address "criculated problem coins" as its primary subject matter. This, by its nature, is a much broader subject than "uncirculated problem coins" that served as the subject of my last guide. This guide, #6 in my series, will not attempt to address every possible problem with a circulated coin, as by their very nature circulated coins sustain post-strike damage of a huge variety. I will address the major circulation damage issues, and then address the short list of major "problems" with circulated coins, so the collector can look safely at a circulated coin and know whether or not he/she is getting solid value to fill that spot in the collection that is awaiting a higher grade coin.

First, what this guide will not do! It will not simply restate the ANA Grading standards for the full range of type coins for grading purposes. Those standards can just as easily be found online by the reader as by the author. What this guide will do is to look at the routine forms of circulation wear and how to spot them on a coin, and then look at the more unusual forms of damage that cause value problems even for circulated coins. Initially, of course, any damage that can occur to a coin while it is uncirculated can have occurred to a circulated coin before it ever reached circulation. These are unlikely to show clearly on anything other than Almost Uncirculated, as they generally occur to the single molecule layer of the metal that is shortly obliterated in circulated coins. So we will not go into that list again. If the reader wants to look at those issues, simply review the #5 article in this series.

Now, let's review the major forms of "circulation damage" to which all coins are subjected in circulation and how we can distinguish these from other, less common forms of damage.
#1 - Bank and Merchant Wear - There really is a difference between the wear a coin gets from being clustered with other coins in a bank bag, or a cash register, or a counting machine than that which it suffers from riding around in a person's pocket. Loose coins in a bank bag may travel through a number of rides, from one bank to another while they are loose inside the bag. Road vibration and the tossing movements of being thrown from one place to another act on the coins in the bag very much like a rock tumbler does in polishing rocks. The constant and frequent strikes against one another causes thousands of microscopic scratches in the surface of the coins fields and devices. These coins may actually appear to be very bright but they will also appear as if this brightness is uniform across the surface. There will be almost none of the luster flow lines radiating outward in the typical cartwheel unless the coin was removed from it's circulation before that surface luster could be entirely iradicated. However, there still may not be a lot of circulation wear on the surface. The devices may still be bold and well struck and there may appear to be little wear on the high points. However, microscopic examination will reveal the multitude of tiny, chaotic scratches that have been imprinted on the surface to give it its polished look.

#2 - Pocket Wear - The name says it pretty well. Here the coin is riding loosely in the pocket's of the people through whose hands it is passing. It means that there will be a combination of strike marks, tiny strikes against the other coins in the pocket, smooth areas that appear as if they have been burnished by a cloth, which they have because they are riding next to cotton cloth, and then things like scratches and gouges that may have been caused by keys, knives, paper clips, pens, anything made of a metal harder than the metal of the coin.

#3 - Thumb Polish - This particular kind of damage shows up most strikingly on coins that have oxidized on the surface of the fields, but appear much lighter on the surface of the devices. What in effect has happened is that the coins oxidation on those surfaces has been rubbed away, frequently by the smooth, slightly oily surface of a person's fingers. These coins can easily be spotted by their distinct contrast between darker fields against lighter devices.

#4 - Rim Dings/Dents - Rim dings and dents can occur in uncirculated coins as well as circulated coins and because they distort the smoothness of the rim itself, they tend to jump out and despoil the eye appeal of any coin. They will frequently devalue a coin at least one grade down from it's actual grade as the condition of the rim is almost always a component of the grade standard for a coin.

#5 - Device Wear - Lest I be accused of missing the obvious there is just plain wear and tear on the surface of the devices as all of the classes of circulation effects wear down the embossed designs on the surface of the coins and flattens them out, eventually obliterating the lines and artwork of the coin itself. This can happen quickly, or it can take centuries, all depending on what rigors to which the coin is put.

These five are the major forms of circulation related damage and can result in some pretty ugly coins, as well as some that are actually fairly attractive for circulated coins. However there are several other types of damage that can and does occur fairly frequently to circulated coins which creates coins that present the collector, dealer or investor with "problems". We will now discuss these in terms of their broad classes of damage.

#1 - Dental Incusions - All of us have seen the old cowboy movie where the hardbitten hero is tossed a coin and he bites it to determine its genuineness. Of course with today's modern coin alloys anyone who engages in this practice will not only learn nothing about the genuineness of the coin but will like have to start looking for an orthodontist as well. However, particularly with gold coins this was a fairly common practice. I have seen gold coins with these dentation marks on otherwise completely uncirculated coins, so it is clear that the practice even remained in use among collectors for some time into the twentieth century. These marks are small, about the size of the tip of a human canine, and will often appear in a small group of two or three as well as individually. These will appear far more regularly on circulated gold coins along with other marks, cuts and scratches because gold is such a soft metal it mars far more easily than do silver coins. These marks do not generally detract from the value of a circulated coin any more than other marks such as bag strikes, scratches, rim dings and gouges will detract from the value. A plethora of these kinds of marks will detract from the eye appeal of the circulated coin and may well drop its value below grade.

#2 - Bezel Solder Marks - People have used coins as jewelry since the first caveman  threaded a clam shell onto a leather thong and traded it to another. In fact, jewelry of this sort was probably the first actual "money" or medium of exchange of one product for another. However, when it comes to collecting coins, using a soldered bezel to hold a coin, and therefore leaving a melt or burn mark on the coin is the kiss of death. This coin will almost certainly be no more than the value of the metal contained in the coin. That is, unless one finds a collector who actually collects "jewelry mounted coins". There are probably collectors who specialize in every conceivable configuration of possible coin collections, so there may be someone who will pay more than just metal value, but finding that collector may take years.

#3 - Holes - Most holes drilled in coins are closely related to #2 which is that the hole was drilled to suspend the coin from a cord, a necklace or a thong. Holing a coin will do to its value pretty much what Bezel Solder Marks will do to it, reduce it to the value of the metal in the coin, which has also been reduced by the amount of the metal that was removed from the coin by destroying the metal that used to occupy the hole. Again, about the only ones who will be interested in paying more than the value of the metal will be specialty collectors who look to holed coins as a historic or cultural curiosity, or who wish to use the coin in their own jewelry. The hole will,  never-the-less reduce the value of the coin well below what it would grade did it not have a hole in it.

#4 - Deliberate Defacing - As long as there has been "money" there have been those who, for one reason or another, do not like its functional appearance and therefore deliberately deface the coins. These can be deep scratches, gouges, holes, chop marks, bullet holes, flattening on railroad tracks, and finally these can be file marks - these last are motivated by greed and are associated with removing shavings of the metal to bring the weight of the metal in the coin in line with the actual denomination of the coin in terms of its value. Of course the person doing the shaving saves the shavings and when accumulated may sell them as a specified weight of the metal itself, silver or gold...

There are, of course nearly endless possibilities for damage to occur to a coin once it hits circulation. Sunk in oceans, dragged from the smoldering coals of a burned house, buried in the ground in tin cans for decades or centuries. However the above nine are certainly enough to give the collector, investor or dealer more than their fair share of headaches and problems. However, once again the notion of the "problem" is really something we give to the coin. At the very least it is always worth the value of the metal, which may not be much but is something anyway. And as many as there are ways to damage a coin, there are just as many ways to motivate a collection. In fact, for every one of the above "problems" there is probably at least one collector who specializes in that "problem". So, when it comes down to it, one collector's "problem" may well be another's "treasure". So, if you somehow come upon a "problem" coin that you paid more for than you think you should have, then make a collection out of it, or find someone who is doing that and you will probably be able to recover your loss in the long term...