They’ve been held a thousand times by you. They were slipped into parking meters. On counters, they were stacked,

flipped to make choices. But have you ever looked at a quarter? Run your thumb along its edge.

Those tiny ridges — they’re not just for grip or decoration. They’re not an accident.

These anti-theft measures date back centuries, to a time when silver hoards, powdered wigs, and cunning crooks tried to outsmart the crown.

The crime was called “coin clipping.” Thieves shaved slivers of precious metal from coin edges, collected the shavings, melted them into bullion,

and spent the slightly-light coins at full value. If done often, clipping funneled massive wealth from the treasury without immediate detection.

The fix came from a guardian of currency: Sir Isaac Newton. Appointed Warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, he battled counterfeiters and implemented

a technological defense — reeded edges. Grooved rims made any clipping obvious: broken or uneven ridges betrayed tampering,

while intact grooves proved authenticity. No contemporary machine could replicate the mint’s precise pattern.

Reeding became the original anti-fraud tech, protecting coinage and trust. Next time you feel a quarter’s edge,

you’re touching three centuries of clever craftsmanship and economic defense.