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It's called "milling", and it's a historical relic.

At one time, coins were made of precious metals (gold or silver). Unscrupulous people would shave the edges of coins and collect the shavings to melt down. Milling the edges makes it obvious that this has been done, and that the coin therefore wasn't worth full value.

Neither quarters nor dimes still contain any gold or silver, but they're still milled, mostly because they've been that way for a long time, and ceasing to mill them would make them look "weird" to people at this point.

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13y ago

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Q: Why are dimes and quarters ridged on the edges?
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