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Message:: [QUOTE="Hobo, post: 373626, member: 11521"]Lou, I think you have your facts mixed up. Or maybe it's your terminology that is mixed up. The purpose of mintmarks is to identify where the coin was minted. Mintmarks cannot prevent someone from shaving the edge of a coin (although the mintmarks on the Presidential dollars are currently located on the edge).  I think you meant to say: "Edge lettering and reeded edges were put on gold and silver coins to prevent people from scraping the edges and spending the coins. They would then end up with a pile of silver or gold scrapings."   Sorry but that is entirely wrong. Mintmarks ARE present on both the Cent and the Nickel (although the Cent does not have a 'P' mintmark for Cents produced in Philly). The original reason for having reeded edges on coins made of precious metal was to prevent edge shaving and an argument could be made to end this practice because modern coins are made of base metals. But reeded edges do still serve a purpose -the reeded edges make it easy to distinguish one coin from another without looking at it. The reeded edges make it easy to distinguish a dime from a cent and a quarter from a nickel. This is critical for a blind person and very helpful for the rest of us because we can identify a coin without taking it out of our pocket.  I hope this helps.[/QUOTE]