The coin is curved (convex) to resemble an inflated football, ready for play! While a football can soar through the air in a perfect spiral, its motion is completely unpredictable should it hit the ground; just one of many aspects that have made this strategic running-kicking-tossing-catching-tackling game one of the most popular sports in North America.

Theories abound how the football got its distinctive shape, but one thing’s for sure, it’s not the result of deliberate design, it just evolved that way. One theory suggests the first footballs some 170 years ago simply took on the shape of the pig’s bladder from which they were made. Even when the switch was made to cowhide and rubber, early footballs were difficult to inflate and were consistently lopsided. This warped shape proved to be a lot easier to carry and throw, and when players began using the forward pass in the early 1900’s, the football was deliberately designed into the elongated shape we see today.