No particular reason. From a certain perspective it may perhaps be seen as "more logical" or "more instinctive" to turn a coin over the same way people turn over the pages of a book, but since there's very little reason these days for anyone except coin collectors to turn over a coin to look at both sides, that argument seems weak.
Personally, I think the widespread use of banknotes in everyday commerce over the past 200 years has accelerated the concept. Banknotes are always printed in "medal orientation", just like any other piece of paper printed on both sides, despite the fact that in a physical sense it would be "easier" to turn a banknote around its longer axis. And it doesn't really make much sense to align the different forms of money in different fashions.
For me, the more interesting question is, "Why were so many coins of the 1600s and 1700s struck in coin alignment?", since most earlier (ancient and mediaeval) coins have either a random alignment or are medal-aligned. I personally think it has to do with the way early mechanical coin dies were placed into the early presses, rocker and roller presses in particular; when a mint worker installs dies into such presses so as both dies look "right way up" to him, the end-result will be a coin-aligned coin.
I'll also edit the title of this thread to make it more appropriate to the topic being discussed.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 10/25/2012 08:41 am
