Coin Collecting And The Brief Return Of Edge Lettering

Edge lettering in the United States disappeared in 1933 and returned again in 2007

. Now, however, its presence has been reduced, and will disappear again in 2014, barring an Act of Congress. But what exactly is edge lettering? In numismatics, or the study and collection of currency, edge lettering refers to writing placed not on either the obverse or reverse sides, but the edge ringing the whole coin. In the US, the process dates as far back as the 1790s, a practice employed in order to discourage shaving of coin edges. Coins including this feature have attained great notoriety in the coin collecting community, so the millennium's new envisioning of edge lettering was a welcomed announcement.

Previously, the last coin minted in the United States with such a feature was the St. Gauden's Double Eagle, a twenty dollar gold piece. This coin was created because of Theodore Roosevelt's ambition to beautify the world of U.S coins. The artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a sculpture of the American Renaissance movement, was picked to handle the design. It is widely thought of as the most gorgeous of all United States coins ever issued. Though beauty was the impetus for the coin's minting, the edge lettering appeared only as a result of requirements leveraged against available space. That is, the artist felt the "E Pluribus Unum" would offset the balance on either side of the coin, and opted instead to write it on the edge, thus establishing the edge lettering, a feature for which it is famed. Some of these are very valuable in the world of coin collecting.

The edge lettering of today is featured on the Presidential $1 coins, designed to commemorate presidents by placing their face on the obverse. They feature edge lettering that says "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust." The coins were minted in very large amounts, resulting in a surplus of these coins. As such, minting has stopped save for the benefit of coin collecting. Since the program is slated to end when every available president to be honored has been given a coin, the process should likely end with the issuance of Ronald Reagan's, unless any other former president passes in the intervening time.

Of interest is the theft of a batch of these $1 coins, specifically ones that were missing the edge lettering. A mistake during the minting process lead to the release of thousands of edgeless or plain Washington commemorative coins. These attained great value in the world of coin collecting for their unique flaw. They were stolen by a Philadelphia police officer and sold for almost 2.5 million dollars to a coin collector in California.

So, if you find an edgeless coin that might normally have edge lettering, and it came into your possession by legal means, you might have the beginnings of a very valuable coin

by: Mark Etinger

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