Nickels One

Why do Dimes and Quarters have small ridges on their sides, but Pennies and Nickels do not?

Is it a counterfeiting defense, or just one of those anomolies in the universe, that nobody can explain?

Nowadays, it’s just tradition. Originally, larger denomination coins such as dimes and quarters were made with silver or gold, and the ridges on the edges were to prevent people from shaving off bits of the metal. Nickels and pennies were made with cheaper metal, where such shaving wouldn’t have been profitable, and thus were made without the ridges. (The metal difference is also why dimes are much smaller than nickels or pennies – the silver they were made from was worth more than the larger amount of copper or nickel used in the lesser values.)

Hobo Nickel Number One by Darren Purdy