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Stacking Coins - why?
rkp
Posts: 450 ✭✭✭
I've read in many articles that when a new coin design was introduced, there were always people that cried in addition to this new design not being as attractive as the outgoing one, it doesn't stack as well.
My question is: just who the heck was stacking coins with such frequency back in the day? It seems like such an impractical way to store coins for a business, be it a bank or at a register. Regardless of how conducive a coin's rims are for stacking, it seems to me that after maybe 20 coins you're just asking for it to topple over. From my 21st century, digital era point of view, this seems like such a trivial thing to complain about for a new design. But then again, perhaps this really was common practice. Please enlighten me.
Thanks!
rkp
My question is: just who the heck was stacking coins with such frequency back in the day? It seems like such an impractical way to store coins for a business, be it a bank or at a register. Regardless of how conducive a coin's rims are for stacking, it seems to me that after maybe 20 coins you're just asking for it to topple over. From my 21st century, digital era point of view, this seems like such a trivial thing to complain about for a new design. But then again, perhaps this really was common practice. Please enlighten me.
Thanks!
rkp
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Comments
Hall of Fame issues - who would even remove them from the capsules, let alone stack them?
Some people just need to be complaining about something. They really mean nothing bad by it. Its just another form of
small talk for them.
Rolling
Have a Great Day!
Louis
The question of stackability was always a consideration at the U.S. Mints.
Coin engravers, as well as designers, were limited to assuring the raised
features of the coin could be no higher than the rim if coins are to stack
uniformly. Most every trade that dealt with coinage would stack it for
accurate accounting, especially bank tellers. Any wobbling or irregularity
made counting coins more difficult and less accurate.
The mint would also stack coins for counting during the final stages of production
prior to being placed in bags to be stored, or shipped out. They used counting
boards, or some variation of it to quickly count different denominations. A board
of an exact size & dimension would have rows and edges, separated by metal cleats. When
stacks of coins of a known amount would fill the board to an exact height, workers
would know they had reached a total of , let's say $1,000 and the coins could be
bagged, added to a box for shipment, etc. It was fast & accurate. This method was
used from before the mid 1800's until years into the 1900's.
This information & more details can be found in the book "From Mine to Mint" by
Roger W. Burdette, 2013.
R.I.P. Bear