san marino 1982 circulating "sets only" issue?

Hello,

What do you think, can san marino coins from 1982 be circulating  if they are "sets only" issue?

2 Lire (Scientific research) - San Marino – Numista

Everything is possible, mine was not in a set…….

Yeah mine neither but judging by how few people have them, I think they were not made for circulation

I have many dozens of San Marino coins that say they were only in sets, none of them actually were.  Some years list both, which of course, once you remove it from the set, is completely indistinguishable from the other.

Hello

I recently saw two San Marino coins in my collection (KM#52 and KM#314) that were simply 'transformed' into non-circulating coins by this respected website.

I don't understand why these coins became non-circulating, since they were previously circulating.

Was it a mistake on the part of the Numista to have previously listed them as circulating?

I understand that if the coin has been in circulation in trade, in the hands of the people, it is circulating, if not, it is not.

I would like a conclusion because I only collect circulating coins and would be pleased to know whether or not these coins are circulating.

Thank you.

Km314 100 % sure circuleted.

Same mess here. 

KM#162 & 164: both minted in same numbers, both “in sets only”… One categorised as circulating, the other as non-circulating! 

Henrique Behr

I would like a conclusion because I only collect circulating coins and would be pleased to know whether or not these coins are circulating.

Many times I've pointed to problems with categorisation (NCLT vs circulating) and it seems there won't be any resolution of the problem. 

So, based on various parameters, I decide myself if a coin is really a NCLT (I see them just as an expensive piece of metal and don't have any interest collecting them) or circulating, regardless of what catalogue says. 

When I find a coin, which is not physically in a set, then it's by my own definition “circulating”, since that is what is. Basta, the numista referees can say, what they like, but they have no real arguments. Yes, a child wanting to buy a bonbon and taking the parent's coin-set apart to get the needed money, is making the coin circulating. That it wasn't meant for circulation doesn't stop the coin from being circulated.

Maybe we should just delete the notion of circulation or not and “in sets only”, as well?

If I remember well from the “old” days, the vast majority of coins circulating in San Marino (and Vatican as well) were those common Italian Lira coins. You hardly ever found a coin from SM or Vatican in circulation, but very occasionally you did (funny enough in Italy). But I remember only 50 Lire and up.

I think one factor to possibly come to a conclusion that a 2 Lire coin from the eighties might be non-circulating is the fact the the smallest coin you were able to use then was somewhere around the 10 or 20 Lire coin, in the nineties 50 or 100 Lire. So basically there was no realistic chance to spend a 2 Lire coin - even though you possibly could, as it was legal tender.

For myself personally, if a coin can potentially be used at a cash desk, for me it is potentially circulating, even though a specific coin might only have been released in some plastic package. No one can tell what happens once it left the factory.

Still doesn't change the fact that, if the coin was only released in sets, it's a non circulating type. Of course coins that have the exact same size weight and general appearance of normal circulating coins could easily be used as cash an nobody will complain. It is up to the individual collector to decide if they want to adhear extremely strict to the circulating category or make exemptions to circulating design coins.