Question about coins(money)....?

Years ago, coins used to be made of gold, silver or copper and were worth their face value or close to it. Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars, and big Dollar coins used to be made with silver. They made the edges reeded so that people wouldn't clip small pieces from the coins or take shavings off of the edges, which would reduce their value and drive them out of circulation. They did this to the gold coins as well. Copper and copper-nickel coins (Cents and Nickels) weren't as close to face value years ago, so they didn't need this protection. Now, US coins made for daily use contain no gold or silver in them and are made with the edges reeded more out of tradition and to help blind people recognize them more easily. The dollar's coins edge (starting in 2000) was made smooth to help people tell them apart from quarters (the different color helps too!).

Vending machines due use weight and size as a factor to help tell real coins from fake, but there is a small tolerance allowed for coins since each coin blank that the coins are minted on can't always be the same exact weight each time. The bigger the coin, the larger the tolerance. There actually isn't a large market for making fake coins for daily use, since they aren't worth very much anyway, but the vending machines are designed to tell them apart.

It was found that silver and gold coins that had no reeding or a way to tell if some one took off a little of the metal soon became very small in size. The English on their early penny's in the middle ages had a cross on the back that went all the way to the edge. Equipment to put the reeding on was not invented until much later. When the mint was started in 1793 here in the USA the 1/2 cent and cent had no reeding for they were low value. All the gold and silver coins had reeding. There was no nivkel then but there was a silver 1/2 dime that was reeded. When the nickel finally showed up in 1866 it was not made of 90% silver so no reeding. Nickel is a hard metal and they would have had problems had they tried. As for weights the cents before 1982 weigh more than the ones made after. As for quarters only the ones 1964 and before weigh more than the 1965 and up for they are 90% silver. Not all coins may be exact for there is a little + and -. Vending machines know what the coin is from the metalic signature of the coin.There is a machine in there that reads that.

Yeah the vary in sizes for many reasons, vending machines and recognition is also another reason. Yeah if they all looked the same size and weighed the same then people wouldn't know what coin it was unless they read it and also vending machines work on weight and size to determine the coin that is being vended.