reeded edges or the lack of.

zippcity

Any reasons as to why cents, nickels, Sacagawea's have smooth edges (excluding presidential dollars w/ edge lettering) as opposed to reeded edges on dimes, quarters, halves, SBA etc.? Just curious if there is a particular reason for doing this. Thanks

ricko

It was done to prevent shaving of metal when those coins were made of precious (silver/gold) metal.....Cheers, RickO

astrorat

As Ricko said, the reeding deterred (or made apparent) shaving or chiseling precious metal from the edges of coins. Even coins from the Roman Republic had serrations (although the exact purpose is unknown for the Roman coins as these pieces were produced for just a short period of time).

The exceptions for US coins were three-cent silver and twenty-cent pieces, which were made of precious metal, but without reeding.