3 TRUE OR FALSE QUESTIONS: 1. A U.S. quarter has 119 reeds on it's edge. 2. A U.S. dime has the same number of reeds as a quarter. 3. A half dollar has 150 reeds.
1&3 are true 2 is false Reeded edges served a two-fold security purpose for silver coins. One, they added an additional, intricate element to the coins that made them more difficult to counterfeit. Two, they prevented fraud.
Correct! A dime has only 118 reeds. I guess people used to file off the edges of silver coins for the silver. The reeds discourage this. http://www.usmint.gov/collectorsClub/funFacts/?action=funFacts11
It also depends on what date and mint you are talking about. For example the very rare 1871 - 74 CC dimes have 89 reeds which is different than the other mints for those years.
The way I see it, reeding actually encourages folks to file off the edges for the precious metal because the first thing that wear's off of a reeded coin is the reeding.
In today's era of vending machines that may be true, but go back and look at 19th century issues and you will find that the reeding remains until the grade gets down below VG, sometimes down to AG.
