Why Don't Golden Dollars, Nickels, And Cents Have Reeded Edges?

Think Coinfrog nailed it.

How about If the Cent ,Nickel and modern Dollar had reeded edges it would be a little difficult to tell them apart in your pocket or to a blind person .

If I remember correctly. since coins are very close in size. the reeding was added for the blind.

Using different edges to try to differentiate denominations of similar-sized coins has a long tradition in America - even dating back to when coins were still made of precious metal. The silver 20 cent piece was given a plain edge, to help differentiate it from the quarter.

Of course, by the 1870s, the practice of fraudulently clipping coins had largely become extinct; silver coins retained their reeding largely out of tradition.

We see the "different denominations get different edges" principle carried to its logical conclusion in the euro coin series, where most denominations have a uniquely distinctive edge:
1 cent and 5 cent: plain
2 cent: plain with central groove
10 cent and 50 cent: coarse reeding or fine scalloping, depending on your point of view
20 cent: "Spanish Flower" (plain with regular widely-spaced indentations)
1 euro: interrupted reeding
2 euro: reeding with edge-lettering

Holy crap! Boy, they sure didn't mess around.

I know that the VAST majority of modern counterfeiting of classic coins happens overseas. Have there been any recent counterfeiters here in the United States that have been brought up on charges?

Closest thing I recall to modern prosecution for counterfeiting is the NORFED/Liberty Dollar case. Counterfeiting was mentioned in the warrant but pretty much everyone agrees that was a weak charge.

Yeah, not sure Condor, just quoting from the ol' internet. There was a related discussion here a couple years ago - http://goccf.com/t/268173.

"If it is on the internet, it must be true." - Abraham Lincoln.