1974 Nickel Dollar - Bad Letter Spacing...?

Hey Wert. The kerning (letter spacing) of any font is a delicate & time consuming art. Serious font designers set the optical spacing for every possible combination of 2 characters within a font. For example there is a large gap at the bottom between the "W" and the "I" - this is balanced out by using a smaller space between the 2 characters at the top. If all the spaces were the same you would have what is called a monospace font - like a typewriter. Monospaced fonts look unnaturally mechanical - think of e.g., the font "Courier".

So I don't think the spacing on the spelling of WINNIPEG is unusual. Unless you find 2 coins with different spacing...


Looks like west-canuck beat me to posting a reply!

Exactly, wert. Over the years sign-painters have learned to balance out all the empty space between any two given letters to try and make the total area as equal as possible for that very reason -- it's more eye pleasing. The engravers at the mint are doing the same thing.

You make a good point pennysaver, now I will have to look at the rest of my Winnipeg dollars....