You may hear the term “uncirculated” related to coins. I keep the image of a cute dog that is only walked outside by his or her owner. Never, ever circulates with the other dogs outside. Never sees the inside of a kennel.  Now, on an occasion that cute dog may bump into another large dog when at the Vet. This may cause some slight brusing.

Well coins that are uncirculated means that coin does not have the wear and tear of being owned by many owners or hanging out with other coins. So it looks good and kept in proper storage. But there may be some “bag marks” from when they bumped into other coins in the bag.

Do I need to say the circulated coins are dogs running with other dogs, etc?

Whereas,  Proof coins are like show dogs. They were breeded in a special way with a special diet, etc.

Proof coins are made special with special dyes.

But allow me to give some links to far better definitions.

Wikipedia says

Us Mint says

Ebay Vender Says

What do you say?

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