Unfair coins

[Dennis R. Preston]

Colleagues,

Do any of you have any technical information about the preparation of
"unfair" coins for petty games-of-chance. In my old neighborhood, the
"filing" of coins (it was hypothesized) would remove some "weight" from
that side of the coin and increase the probability that the other side
would come "up."

I don't follow this physics of this theory. If weight is removed from one
side, the "center" simply changes, but the odds of heads or tails stays the
same. Right?

Perhaps "uneven" weight removal would do the job. If so, how?

dInIs

PS: This is for theoretical purposes only; I still have my job.


Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736