trivia of the day
Q: Why do dimes and quarters have ridges on the edges where pennies and nickles do not?
A: The tradition started years ago when coins were made out of pure silver and gold.
People would take a gold or silver piece and “trim” some of the metal off before spending it. After time, they found they could spend the money and still accumulate a significant amount of gold and silver “trimmings” to exchange for a profit!!
To stop this practice, the government started making gold and silver coins with “ridges” to discourage this practice.
Since nickels and pennies were made from far less valuable metals, the government never considered the more costly practice of putting ridges on them.
Even though dimes and quarters are made from an alloy now, and NOT from pure silver, the tradition of the “ridges” has continued because that’s what the public was used to.
