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 Replies: 7 / Views: 2,474 |
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Valued Member
United States
170 Posts |
Hi, I been looking at some Hong Kong coins I recently received. I noticed that they use a different edge and wonder if other countries do things like this? Thanks, Glen  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1840 Posts |
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Valued Member
 United States
170 Posts |
Thanks, using the term 'security edge' I did a google search and ended up reading a post from this forum which did a great job of describing different edges used on coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Btw, back when precious metals were used in coins, reeding was adopted to prevent people from shaving off some metal and then spend the coins, slowly accumulating a nice pile of silver or gold. This is why the US dime and upwards have a milled edge which is entirely superfluous today.
Edited by KurtS
03/14/2008 8:32 pm
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Moderator
 Australia
16837 Posts |
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
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
G'day, British silver Crowns were reintoduced in 1818, and rather than reeding, they had a text impressed into the edge:
DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI xxx
Where xxx represents the regnal year in Roman numerals.
Translation An ornament and a safeguard.
As the regnal year did not coincide with the calendar year, it is possible to date coins to a so-called "semester": an 1819 Crown might be found with an LIX or LX edge; etc.
An interesting error can be found on the 1818 crown. The collar in which the coin was struck to give the edge inscription was made of segments, which for some coins had been incorrectly assembled, giving the bizarre inscription DECVS ANNO REGNI LVIII ET TVTAMEN.
Earlier than this, French gold coins, both Napoleonic, and under the Bourbon Restoration, had an impressed edge:
DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE
= God save France,
or perhaps, God protects France
I have never researched when this practice began: probably ancient.
In 1953, the U.K. Coronation Crown had an impressed edge.
Peter in Oz
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Valued Member
United States
170 Posts |
KurtS, I always appreciate you taking the time to help newcomers like myself! And I'm not surprised to hear from Sap and Peter as the link I found using google came back to this forum and was full of information from you two! It was the same one linked to above.
Glen
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Moderator
Australia
16837 Posts |
quote:
Peter said:
I have never researched when this practice began: probably ancient.
The modern concept of a reeded, decorated or inscribed edge only dates from the time of machine-struck coinage, 1500's at the earliest. It would have been impossible to place an edge on an ancient or mediaeval hammered coin, because the edge is essentially a third die, and trying to line up the three dies (obverse, reverse and edge) quickly and efficiently by hand for every coin struck would have been impossible. 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
Edited by Sap
03/15/2008 05:44 am
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Replies: 7 / Views: 2,474 |
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Posted 03/14/2008 7:35 pm
