Prooflike coins are especially popular in the Morgan silver
dollar series, where separate listings for higher prooflike grade levels can be
found in the Coin Dealer Newsletter and the Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter.
Two caveats:
- As prooflike surfaces tend to accent and make more
prominent any nicks or marks a coin has received, in general an MS-63 or MS-64
coin with prooflike surface is unappealing from an aesthetic viewpoint. This is
especially true in the Morgan dollar series.
- There has been an "inflation" in the grading of
prooflike coins, and while years ago a coin described as DMPL would be virtually
indistinguishable from a Philadelphia Mint Proof, this is no longer the case.
Many slabbed DMPL coins are only partially prooflike. Never buy a DMPL coin
sight-unseen.
Circulated Grades
As we leave the MS-60 to MS-70 Uncirculated category and
Proof category, we encounter grade ranges for coins which show wear and other
attrition. Business strikes were meant to be used, and used hard. This was their
purpose in the scheme of things. As a cent, half dollar, or other coin passed
from hand to hand it encountered friction, which caused wear, gradually reducing
it to the AU-58 (just below Mint State) level, then to AU-55, then with most of
the original mint lustre gone, down to AU-53, then to AU-50. To qualify as AU-50
the typical dime, quarter, half dollar, or other piece of a popular denomination
probably circulated for up to several years. A silver dollar or gold coin, which
was more apt to be stored in a bank and not handled except at infrequent
intervals, may not have reached this state until after several decades of use.
As a coin acquires more evidence of circulation and wear,
it becomes lower in grade, EF-45, EF-40, through the VF numbers to VF-20, in
stages to F-12, then VG-8, G-4, AG-3, Fair-2, and finally, Poor-1. There are few
coins which are Poor-1, for the Treasury Department redeems most pieces before
this state of wear is achieved, but occasionally in numismatics one encounters
an early coin which has been worn nearly smooth. I have had several 1793 Chain
large cents which were worn so much that the date, letters, and nearly
everything else was gone, with just a vestige of the Chain motif visible in
order to identify them.
