People are only just realising why coins aren’t perfect circles – & it puts an end to an age-old con
HAVE you ever wondered why coins are shaped the way they are? Turns out it dates to way back when.
Tik Tokker @CoinCollectingWizard has spilled the beans on why coins have ridges in a shocking video which has racked up over 9,000 views.
Coins have existed since around 1000 BC and have gone through a lot of changes.
From the colour to the shape, UK coins have been carefully crafted.
In the Tik Tokker’s explainer video he revealed: “All coins were made of gold or silver and did not have ridges.
“Each coin’s value was based on the amount of gold or silver in it.”
However, the Coin Collecting Wizard claimed that some crafty meddlers would scrape off the gold or silver edges to sell for their own benefit.
Peeling the smaller coins was easier to sweep under the carpet, so to speak, but overtime, the value of the gold and silver coins decreased.
In a bid to tackle the meddlers from nicking more of the gold or silver, the government did two things.
First, they began to groove the coin edges.
Second, they stopped producing real gold and silver coins.
The ridged coin look made it easier for any attempted scraping to be identified.
It just so happened to stick around and now it is a long standing tradition.
Ridged edges also makes it easier to tell 10p and 2p coins apart.
One person commented on the video: “Interesting, never knew this.”
Another said: “Thank you.”