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.