![]() Reeding had been present on British coinage and other European currencies as early as the 1500s, but America has never had a problem stealing things from other nations (cough, cough, National Anthem…). To be fair, this wasn’t the first time this had been done. The clever political minds of the time came up with the idea of adding those recognizable notches to the edges of coins, a process called “reeding”, when the coins were made. This didn’t escape the notice of the US government, who was in charge of regulating currency, and they had to come up with a solution. When enough shavings had been gathered, these criminals could trade in the precious metal and make a tidy profit. This sneaky behavior was known as coin clipping, and it became a real problem, as it devalued the currency, but many people were doing it! Essentially, $.50 – $1 of value could be shaved off, yet the $9 or $9.50 coin could still be used to buy $10 of goods. The shavings weren’t much, but they certainly added up, and if the process was done precisely enough, it was very difficult to tell when a coin had been shaved down. This also presented an opportunity for less savory individuals to take advantage of the design and carefully file off the edges of these gold and silver coins. In America, one-cent coins weren’t introduced until 1864.Īs you can see, walking around with a pocketful of change made of pure gold and silver was a lot more exciting than having your pants weighed down by “useless” change today. Smaller coin denominations, including dollar, half-dollar, quarters, dimes and nickels, were worth their weight in silver. These three types of coins were made of an equivalent amount of gold ($10 coin = $10 in gold, $5 coin = $5 in gold, etc.). In the 1700s, there were also quite a few more coins in existence, including $10, $5 and $2.50 coins. Back in 18th century America, your pocketful of coins was worth quite a bit more than it is now, relatively speaking. Today, coins are almost exclusively made from copper, nickel and zinc – rather inexpensive metals – so coins are not actually worth their weight in that particular metal. Short Answer: The notched edges on certain coins were initially designed to prevent people from filing the edges down when coins were made of more precious metals. If you blindly go through life accepting the way things are, then this probably isn’t the site for you, but if your curiosity is piqued, then read on, to learn once and for all why some types of coin currencies are notched on the edges. ![]() When you walk down the street, coins jangling in your pocket, it’s nice to know that you have some spare change on hand, but how often do you ever stop and think about those quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies? Have you ever considered why those coins are different sizes? What they’re made of? And, perhaps most mysteriously, why some coins have ridges on the edges, while others don’t? The notched edges on certain coins were initially designed to prevent people from filing the edges down when coins were made of more precious metals.
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