An initial chilly reception for the $2.50 and $5 Indian gold coins

I've assumed the requirement wasn't so much "stack on the rims", but "don't stack on a design high point", so as to prevent stacks from falling over...?

 

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The most important criterion for the term, “does it stack properly?” had to do with the thickness of the coin. When these coins were counted, those who did it regularly learned to grab a certain number of coins at a time by touch. If one handled enough of these coins, it is my understanding that you learned to count that way.

The trouble with some of the coins, like High Relief $20 gold, that Teddy Roosevelt wanted was that they did not feel the same as the earlier Liberty design coins. Therefore they didn’t “stack properly” for the people who had to do the counting.

Maybe they got used to the Indian type coins, but it probably took some practice. One of the big problems with Teddy Roosevelt’s coinage ideas and the designs that Herman Herring executed on behalf of Augustus St. Gaudens was that the coins were not practical. The mint could not mass produce them consistently, and the people who had to use them did not find them convenient.

These facts are, of course, vital to a successful coinage. Collectors sometimes forget that the primary use for business strike coins is in the real world, not a coin cabinet or album.

Although some collectors whine and moan about what Charles Barber did to the St. Gaudens designs, he knew how to design and make dies that worked for coins that were used in commerce. The artists who designed the Roosevelt era coins did not.

 

You answered a question that was always in the back of my mind: "Since incused images would last longer and not fade away, why aren't they made today?" Now I understand why. It makes sense too.