>>938789548
Coins were originally made out of precious metals, which meant that if you clipped the edges of a coin you could sell the silver/gold that it was made of while also having the value of the coin itself. Eventually countries started putting edges or ridges on coins to make it obvious when people fucked with them. These different edges and ridges also helped people identify the type of coin they had in their hand without seeing it, so they kept it after switching to base (non-precious) metal coins.
