What Was The Rate Of Wear On Circulating Silver Coinage Back In The Day?

For starters, silver is just a softer metal than copper-nickel. Coin silver is a bit more resistant, but I believe it still wears more quickly.
Another factor is that coins just circulated a lot more back in the day. While a circulating coin in the late 19th century might have changed hands on a semi-daily basis, a typical coin today might get given in change, sit in a jar for a year or two, then go back to get rolled up and sit some more.
Considering that, I don't think this example is that worn for 18 years of old-fashioned circulation.

As a related anecdote, two of my pocket pieces are an 1885-O Morgan and a 2000 ASE. The ASE started in November 2020 and is down from MS to low XF or so in under five months. The Morgan, which started in April 2016, is down from maybe high AG to low AG in five years. I carry them around pretty much everywhere.

Entirely, Silver is very soft and wears very quickly. Especially if it was in a humid climate or warm place. Mainly tropics and subtropics, but also you guys in the USA as even in the north and east, you had hot summers!

My own studies show that silver coins of NZ minted in 1933 - 1946 are mostly found in G and VG condition, Fine is less common and VF is a premium, EF and better are very scarce and prices reflect this.


Average to slightly better than average NZ coins.

Most only circulated 10 - 15 years to go from UNC down to VG, some may have been used up to the 1960s before we went decimal, but to pay WW2 loans to UK and USA, as much silver as possible was ferreted out from 1950 onwards.

Cupronickel has survived better, you would be hard pressed to find even a 1947 coin in less than Fine or almost Fine




A lot of standard scrap 1947 - 1952 KGVI cupronickel of NZ, most are Fine heading up to VF, some stained. Many were used 20 years to 1967 and some 6d, 1/- and 2/- circulated through to 2006 and still remained fine.

Bronze is more durable than copper, many bronze pennies remained recognisable back to 1900 (UK, NZ pennies from 1940 onwards are always F - VF and EF for 1960s). Only Bun head pennies from the 1890s backwards are flat discs mainly as they were low relief.


Standard worn flat Bun head penny, this coin probably spent 100 years in criculation


Standard penny from 100 years ago (Spent about 50 - 60 years in circulation, yet still VG - Fine condition).

I would say silver coins wore very fast. My guesses of standard times assuming the coin was a Quarter or a Shilling and used heavily in an urban context in 1900.

Condition and Days

UNC - Leaves mint, may have marks already from bulk carrying

AU - A couple of days of rough handling, week in a till.

EF - 2 or 3 weeks rough handling, 2 months in a bank being counted

VF - Maybe 2 months continuous wear, 1 year in nicer situations

Fine - less than a year since minting for constant usage. 10 years at most unless put aside or not used much.

VG - 5 years constant usage, coins wore much slower when they got really worn. Most coins got this bad before recalled or in someones collection 100 years later.

Good - 20 or more years rough usage, never if well handled.

Fair/Poor , at least 80 or more years rough usage.

Just my guesses!

@Numisma Great point. I guess coins back then are analogous to what paper currency might be today. Paper currency circulates at a fairly rapid rate, and most bills I'm sure are pulled out of circulation after 10 years, depending on the denomination. The same could probably be said of silver coins around the turn of the century then.

@Princetane Thanks for the great analysis! I can't forget that there are more collectors on this forum than just Americans. Fine collection by the way :).

Here are few examples of fairly worn coins from my collection. I wonder how many years it took for these coins to reach their current state?










Probably some of the most worn examples in my collection. @Princetane on the Maria Theresia Thaler, apparently these coins circulated and were made into charms by tribes in Ethiopia. I can't imagine how a coin on a charm like this could become so worn. Given that country has a pretty hot and maybe humid (rainy season), perhaps that could explain why. Maybe the charm was made to sell to tourists on purpose who knows...although I wouldn't want to go there now with all the problems they have at the moment.

As others had mentioned, the modern cupro-nickel clad coins are harder than the older 90% silver coins. Also the old coins actually circulated much more in commerce than modern coins and there were not credit cards back then for everyone to use. That being said, some denominations seem to have suffered more abuse than others. Just look at the Barber halves and quarters, Mercury dimes, and Liberty nickels to name a few. It can be a challenge to acquire high grade examples of some of these coins. I actually compiled a chart of the weight of coins in different stages of wear to assist me in authenticating coins. For example, when Morgan dollars and Walking halves left the press they had a certain weight. By the time both had worn down to G-4 grade, they had lost nearly 1 gram of weight. I do not have any idea of the amount of time it took for them to wear down. There are still bags of dateless slicks commonly available

I think a good way to make a determination would be to examine "junk" silve Washington quarters. I say quarters because they were the workhorse coins. Now the 1964's were struck through 1965, but most of them were gone from circulation by 1968 or 69. You your typical circulated 1964 quarter will have circulated for less than 4 years. The 1963's were only struck in 1963 so will have 6 years or less circulation. 1962's 7 years and so on. Now coins from the 30's and 40's are often encountered in Good condition so you can fairly well assume that within 30 yeas a silver coin will be worn done to Good, IF it stays in circulation. Also understand that the more dtail that is worn off the longer it will take to wear down to the next grade due to more surface that needs removing. So go examine some bulk silver.