Edge Orientation

Generally speaking, any coin with INCUSE edge lettering has two orientations - and the lettering can start anywhere in relation to the obverse and reverse designs. This is because the lettering is applied to the blanks before they are fed between the dies. So it is completely random.

Coins with RAISED edge lettering have this applied by a collar at the same time as the coin is struck between the dies, so normally all specimens of the same coin will have the same edge lettering orientation, and it will start in the same place in relation to the obverse and reverse designs.

Please could someone correct me if this is not true for all coins? I learned about this way back in 1975 from a French coin magazine, which had received lots of letters from people concerned that the many of the then-new 10-franc pieces were forgeries, as the edge legends varied, whereas the edge legend on the 1960-69 5-franc coins (which were then still commonly found in circulation) was always in the same position!

A lot of European collectors seem to collect two specimens of coins with incuse edge lettering - one for 'obverse up' and one for 'reverse up', but I've never bothered with this.

For the US golden dollars (Sacagawea, Presidential, and Native American) it is applied after the coin has been struck for business strikes and while the coin is being struck for proofs (it is part of a segmented collar, therefore they only have one orientation).

So what's your opinion, should I collect the 2 orientation edge coins?

And this is why I dislike edge-incusing. I like the concept but not for identifying information like mint mark and year.

As far as I know collectors never bothered to concern themselves with the edge orientations until the president dollars came out. And very few bother with collecting both orientations on those either.