Coins, Currency, Cards and Collectibles
By Douglas Keefe
Have you ever wondered what those ridges around coins are meant for? Those ridges are called “milling” and historically served an important purpose which today is irrelevant.
The purpose of a coin was to provide an amount of a precious metal equal to the denomination of the coin. Simply stated for United States coins until 1964, a dime contained 10 cents worth of silver, a quarter 25 cents worth of silver and so on. This became meaningless after 1964 when the composition of our coins changed to base metal.
From the beginning of the striking and usage of coins, unscrupulous individuals would shave the edge of a gold or silver coin and then spend the coin for its’ indicated value. The benefit to these individuals would be they received full value for an under-weight coin and could sell the shaved metal after the fact. If this was done to many coins, the “shaver” could reap quite a windfall.
The answer to the problem was to put some type of marking on the edge of coins so it would be evident if someone had tried to shave off some of the metal. This took the form of and intricate design, lettering or the more familiar milling. This was a universal solution to a problem shared by all countries that struck coins in a precious metal. However, it was unnecessary for low denomination, base metal coins such as our one cent and five cent coins, since there was no financial benefit to shaving those coins.
People over the years have thought it was illegal to damage or alter U.S. coins, but in truth it was illegal to spend those coins because of the potential loss of some of the metal, making the content less than the stated value. An example would be if someone drilled a hole in a silver dollar to wear as a necklace, then tried to spend it at a later time, it would be illegal because the silver dollar now had less than one dollar’s worth of silver because of the missing silver from the hole.
Continuing the practice of milling our coins is more of habit than need as there is no silver or gold in any of our coinage. Probably some of the reason is to accommodate the vending machine industry and self-check-out systems in stores, since any change could impact their operation.
As a follow-up to my previous article about local medals, I would be remiss not to better describe the medal issued by Brigantine in 1972 to celebrate the opening of the new bridge replacing the old drawbridge that connected Brigantine to Atlantic City for many years. It featured a rendering of a sailing ship in front of the new bridge, a high span over the waterway which would allow the passage of virtually any ship, and on the reverse the seal of the City of Brigantine. These were struck in several different metals. I don’t have a picture of this medal in my previous article because I was trying to find one in my inventory so I could accurately describe its’ design, and I was trying to find an image of one online so I could include a picture. I know I have things; I just sometimes forget where I left them. Sound familiar?
However, I did find another Brigantine medal, one marking the 100th year anniversary of the incorporation of the city, 1897-1987. The word Watamoonica on the medal is the name the Lenape Indians gave the island which translates to “summer playground”, which is a name that still applies.
