Reeded Edges
Did you ever wonder why the U.S. Mint began reeding the edges of gold and silver coins?
One reason was to keep would-be criminals from “shaving” the edges of precious metal coins, gathering the filings, and then selling the gold or silver. As a side benefit, the reeded edges also made our coins more intricate and harder to counterfeit.
Reeding has also gained some provenance to coin collectors. The 1921 Morgan Dollar has a “wide edge” reeding and a “normal’ edge reeding. Wide edge reeded Morgans feature 157 reeds (VAM 44), while the normal variety has 189.
189 Normal -Top
157 Wide – Bottom
Beginning in 1836, the Mint reeded all silver and gold coins with two exceptions. Can you name these two exceptions?
Clubs and Associations
- American Numismatic Association
- American Numismatic Society
- British Numismatic Society
- Central Ohio Numismatic Association
- Central States Numismatic Society
- Florida United Numismatists
- Numismatic Society of India
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- The Royal Numismatic Society
Coin Links
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- Calculate your coin's gold, silver, or metallic worth
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- Dayton Metro Library – Coin Books
- Fixing PVC damage
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- Medalblog
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- NapoleonicMedals.org
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- Starting a coin collection
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- Where is my coin from?
Coin News
Miami Valley Coin Dealers
Speciality Clubs
- American Tax Token Society
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