2021 Type 2 Missing Reed Edge

Just a few ideas in case anyone from the Mint is reading...

If they wanted to, the Mint could essentially serialize these by removing four reeds from the edge:

One in a predefined location on the coin as the reference point (i.e. index 0, or start counting from here).
One with the entire reed missing as the first two digits (i.e. 36 away from the reference point >> first two digits are 36).
One with the top (obverse) half of the reed missing as the middle two digits.
One with the bottom (reverse) half of the reed missing as the final two digits.

If there are at least 101 reeds (I've never counted, but that seems to be a reasonable guess), you could make almost a million combinations this way (with the exception that you can't use any numbers that would require missing reeds in the same place, such as 362536).


They could also delete a reference reed in a standard location--and then remove 10 or so other reeds in other locations and multiply them to get a serial number. This should give enough numbers to be able to use something analogous to a check digit (or some other similar validation tool).

Call me stupid... But I think the mint could not care less about where the missing reed is and this "security" feature.

After all the mint is not storing these to back our dollar.

edited: Nor do I think they are checking ebay and other sites for counterfeit coins. It's up to us, the buyer to know what's real when getting these coins on the secondary market.

The USA has gone down the road of the Romans, debasing coins, etc. But ASE are by law 1 oz. silver even with missing reed(s), as they should be with high enough prices to cover costs and likely more. I wonder if the Mint is the only government department to make a profit or are they supposed to break even? I don't know. Maybe it varies from year to year.

I have Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Nero and other good silver denarii before debasement.