I was going through some of my world coins that were passed down from my father. Trying to identify and categorize everything. I found an interesting edge reeding variety of a 1915 20 Centavos coin from Cuba. The reeds looked course vs. fine but I also wanted to verify the number of reeds and compare with this article:
http://coinsofcuba.com/index.php/category/generalI was having a really hard time counting the reeds so instead of trying to tackle the entire coin I measured the circumference of the coin which was about 3 inches. Then I divided this by 6 and found landmarks on the coin which corresponded to a 1/2 inch distance. I then counted the reeds along this distance and multiplied it by 6. I came up with 20x6=120. Not an exact science by any means but when combined with the course appearance of the reeding it increases my confidence. The coin also appears to be low relief versus high relief which usually corresponds to the course reeding variety.
It makes me cringe a little that this coin along with all the others was stored loose in a small canvas bag for...well longer than I've been alive anyways. The coin is still in good shape though and I would guess EF40 based on the grading chart in the linked article.
I'm having a lot of fun going through these coins. More interesting than looking at coins from just one country.