this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2025
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Coins are just really unbalanced three-sided dice.
The odds of a US nickel landing on its edge is about 1 in 6000. If there are any other country's coins thicker the odds would probably get better.
A standard US nickel, yes.
I prefer better odds than that…
Thick Nickels
thickles
Thnickles
Whatever you call them, people will respect you more when you use them.
thank you for this blessed website in trying times
This website looks like it was made in 1999, but it documents a project from this year. I love it. The page loaded nearly instantly.
I love his commitment to the bit. True dedication
The old UK £1 was similar in size but twice as thick. It's now 12-sided but not sure how that impacts the odds.
I know there's a way to figure that out, but I have no idea where to start. So I'm going with 1 in 3000, plus or minus 42.
Well, but it also has to stay on its edge, and that's a lot less likely...
That extremely rare, almost-never chance of landing on the edge is exactly what I would program into a game if I made one, instead of exactly 50% odds.
Not if it's a thnickel.
Thanks, I hate it.
It should come with some bizarre consequence, too. If it were the Oregon Trail game, there should be a tiny chance that the player finds an ancient artifact that glows and hums when touched. An alien ship swoops in and abducts the party, forcing them to join the crew. From there on, it's a space pirate game with zero explanation why and no references in the product literature. Also, customer service pretends not to know about it, if contacted.
Rare coin flip: Success for every roll over the next hour of gameplay.
I brought this up in maths class once. The teacher agreed that the edge was a possibility and since he was involved in football, they used to flip the coin and let it land on the ground. More than once it stuck in the mud in the edge.
Then told us to ignore that possibility.
https://youtu.be/vAA-A9t7TD0
Even not considering that, they still aren't 50-50 odds. The stamped printing on both sides throws off the balance just enough to bias one side over the other.
aka really short cylinders