How many notches on a quarter

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Surprise Bunch of Books. Clippers would shave off a tiny amount of metal all the way around the rims of a bunch of coins, collect the shavings, then sell them. Working carefully, a coin clipper could trim enough off of coins to make a nice profit, but not so much as to make them noticeably lighter or smaller. A clipper could then still go out and spend his devalued coins as if they were unaltered. Reeded edges ruined this scheme, since a shaved edge would be immediately obvious and alert anyone who received one that something was wrong.

Why don't nickels and pennies have reeded edges? Nickels and pennies are mainly composed of inexpensive metals, so the chances that they would be tampered with are low.

Before their adoption by the U. Mint, reeded edges were also used in the UK. When the physicist Isaac Newton became warden of the Royal Mint in , he used reeded edges, among other means, to combat clippers and counterfeiters. Other European coins from as far back as the early s also feature reeded edges. Coin clipping is no longer a problem, but reeded edges are still around, a centuries-old security measure hanging on in an age where people pay for things with their smart phones instead of digging out pocket change.

The tenacity is admirable. But why are they still there? Coins are made by stamping coin blanks with a metal tool called a die. When the coins are struck, a part of the die called the collar holds the blank in place and applies the edge. Newer coins with updated designs state quarters, new portraits also have reeded edges.

The design element lived to see another day on the new dies because reeding is useful for distinguishing coins by feel as well as appearance, making them more user-friendly for the visually impaired. If you gather up a bunch of coins, you'll see that not all reeded edges are created equal.

The number and size of reeds on coins is not dictated by law, so individual U.