To help the blind identify the denomination? Wouldn't want someone spending a dollar thinking it's a quarter. Novelty? History- we did in generations ago, so why not try it again? To move language off of the face of the coin so it won't be so crowded? Harder to counterfeit?
1. Haha. Nice. 2. Since they are more for collectors I can see that, but why put the mintmark and year on the edge. 3. Based on the new penny design I can see this. 4. I agree with this one. 5. Not at all. The edge lettering wears off so quick it doesn't matter. I've taken some at the store that had virtually no edge lettering left b/c it was a weak strike/worn off.
We have "always" had them in Europe, at least in the past 100 years or so. In some countries they are used as extra security features (and no, the edge lettering does not necessarily wear off quickly). Also, with commemorative coins you have the option to use the edge for some theme motto. In Germany for example the default edge lettering is Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, the first words of the national anthem. But a coin dedicated to Copernicus for example had the Latin edge inscription "In Medio Omnium Residet Sol", an Oceanographic Museum coin said "Ohne Wasser kein Leben" (No Life Without Water), and so on. Don't think that edge inscriptions are necessary, but they can be fun ... Christian
As far as I know the letters were added to the edge of old coinage because of people scraping the edges to get a few grains of silver and this would deter them. I guess it is for collectors since scraping the edge of these would get you manganese brass clad shavings. I'd still like to hear a reasonable explanation of why we have edge lettering...
Right, edge lettering and milled edges were security features. And to some extent they still are. For example, the €2 and £1 coins have a combination of both: a milled edge with incuse characters. Except that there are lots of fake £1 coins in circulation in the UK. Now if people actually inspected the edges very thoroughly, they might detect "bad" edge lettering, either because the font is wrong or because the motto does not match the year of issue ... The German €2 coins (as well as their 5 DM predecessors) have a "hidden" feature in the edge lettering which allows you to check which mint made a piece. If the easily visible mintmark and that feature do not match, the coin is fishy. Wait, by now even the counterfeiters will know about this. The Swiss 5 Fr coin for example has raised edge lettering. And as far as I know, that is actually difficult to counterfeit. But of course all those features do not really help if people do not check them carefully. And frankly, in everday life, who does? Christian
I like the edge lettering, but i dont like the date and mintmark there. Like it was said before, it wears off too easily specially with a weak strike. But i think, in my opinion, we are going back to the traditional/historical coins(ie the buffalo nickel) so that might be the product of that trend. But, im still pretty new at collecting, so take my opinion as far as you want.
