Why are US coins minted in "coin turn"? 0

[RWB]

The US Mint's 1967 reply:

 

June 8, 1967

The Honorable

Birch Bayh

United States Senate

Washington D.C. 02510

Dear Senator Bayh:

            Your memorandum of June 2, 1967 enclosing a communication from Mr. marvin Zurcher, 356 Bryan Street, Barne, Indiana 46711, as been referred to me for consideration.

            Mr. Zurcher asks the following questions:

1.      “What reason or act of Congress were there that decided to have the obverse 180° opposite of the reverse side” of United States coins?

The alignment of the obverse and reverse designs, known as the “coin turn,” on our coins is not a matter of law. This convention was adopted for the first United States coinage and has been used throughout our history. The accuracy of this alignment is also not a matter of law but reasonable tolerances have been established by the Mint, based on actual experience.

2.      “What could be the possible cause of the inaccurateness of the obverse and reverse being rotated that they weren’t 180° ?”

In general, in any instance where the misalignment of the two designs is beyond acceptable limits, one possible inference could be that the dies had not been properly installed in the coining press.

The two coins which Mr. Zurcher enclosed have been examined and were found to have the coin turn alignment within satisfactory tolerances.

The coins and correspondence are being returned to you with this letter. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

Sincerely,

/s/ Eva Adams,

Director of the Mint

Edited September 4, 2021 by RWB

[Woods020]

This is a question I asked a while back. Eva sidestepped the “why” question. Saying we adopted it is self evident. Why is the question. I believe it was Conder that said it was probably to be distinct from our previous British rulers. That makes as much sense as any I have heard on the “why”. 

[J P M]

On 9/4/2021 at 6:53 PM, Woods020 said:

This is a question I asked a while back. Eva sidestepped the “why” question. Saying we adopted it is self evident. Why is the question. I believe it was Conder that said it was probably to be distinct from our previous British rulers. That makes as much sense as any I have heard on the “why”. 

I go with anything we could do to not be the same as everyone else is why.

[RWB]

Well, they couldn't very well tell Sen. Bayh that it was a secret.

[DWLange]

Only a small handful of other nations have used this alignment. Several are in Latin America, which at one time mimicked USA coinage with respect to iconography.

[RWB]

The most likely explanation is that Spanish 8 Reales were made in that orientation, and we based our dollar's silver content (incorrectly) on an average of these coins.