Prussia - Napoleon's Defeat question...

coinpictures

I never noticed this before, and Krause makes no reference to this: The two designs for 2 Marks and 3 Marks are identical, but I noticed that of the pair I recently purchased, the 2 Marks has a reeded edge, but the 3 Marks has a lettered edge. Any idea why the difference? I would have thought that as long as the obverse and reverse designs were identical, so would the edge designs...

Sapyx

I don't own enough 3 mark coins to do a proper survey, and the Krause catalogue doesn't mention edge inscriptions. The only ones I have are from Prussia: a thaler from 1818 and the Napoleon 3 marks, and both of these have edge inscriptions. Do most other 3 mark/1 thaler coins from the German states have an edge inscription? it could simply be continuation of the tradition.

On the other hand, these were theoretically circulating coins - different edges would have assisted at-a-glance recognition of the denomination. In the same way, the modern 20 eurocent has a different edge to the otherwise-similar-looking 10 and 50 eurocent.

Preussen

2 Marks have reeded edges & 3 Marks don't...not just the commemoratives, but all of them . - Preussen

Edited for (attempted) clarification.