well, I would say, the only criteria for the coin to be circulating one is the fact that the issuer let you obtain the coin by face value.
say in case it was possible to get gold plated coins from the NRBT by face value I would treat these coins as circulating.
actually I do not understand what you mean by "simply damaged by handling".
I got about 20 coins from the bank. and all of them were "simply damaged".
sure you could tell me about investment coins: I buy one from the bank, damage it, and then sell it to the bank once again. However still not by face value.
or you could tell me about recent GBP20 silver coins which could be obtained by face value. However in case the price for the silver goes down there would be no barrier not to use these coins in circulation. As far as I know silver euro coins from Portugal and France were found in circulation.
THIS was my reply
investment coins no1
coin given to you at no cost by govt-- you leave it lying around for a while-show everyone mishandle it and than sell to bank (or a intermediate person) for whatever you can get- and the bank sells still uncirculated but damaged coin to the next guy to come along at a profit-- i believe there was guys going around the villages buying these coins up and taking to bank
and this
Simply damaged means they have been handled by several people and not stored properly--apparently some were gifted by the govt of Tonga to worthy citizens or officials and these are the ones that appear circulated--------------the coins can appear VF or XF without been circulated if not handled properly according to my sources maybe 2000 were given away---- some of these were also supplied in little cotton cloth bags, which i feel would be abrasive to coin face ----real bag marks i would say
