Quarters vs. Nickels

For decades, people have debated the classic question, which coin is best to flip? Is it the quarter or is it the nickel?

In recent years, physicists have found that the answer is dependent upon the desired outcome of the flip. For heads, a quarter is best and has the highest probability of landing on heads, which the nickel is far superior when aiming for tails.

This difference comes from the differences in weight between the two sides of the coin, which shifts the center of mass of the coin. While the shift is slight, is is enough to effect the outcome of a coin flip. The classic Washington quarter, with the seal of the United States on the tails side, contains 52% of the mass of the quarter on the tails half of the coin, after thousands of consecutive flips and hours of data analysis, the it has been found that the quarter will come up heads 56% of the time. There has not been sufficient time to measure the variations of the Washington state quarters; introduced in 1998, the quarters have different tails FACES, and scientists believe that they may cause up to a variation of +/- 3%.

For the same reasons, the Jefferson nickel comes up tails almost 54% of the times flipped. This is, of course, due to the large weight of Jefferson's head in CONTRAST to the image of Monticello.