Is that a tuna can with oil or water?
If the coin is given a random orientation (with no bias toward any particular orientation), moved into contact with the surface, and released with no momentum or angular momentum, the probability is based on the solid angle from center of mass of the rim. This results in probability of ending up on its edge of t/sqrt(DD+tt), where t= thickness (2 mm) and D is diameter (26.49 mm), giving probability of 7.5%.
If you want to give the coin some sort of momentum, angular momentum, or bias toward a particular orientation when it first makes contact with the surface, then further clarification is required in the question.
You work for Microsoft, don’t you?
This works for a right circular cylinder, but not in general: Most general shapes will have surfaces on which they can’t come to rest at all, despite nonzero solid angles to those surfaces.
Sorry for the hijack… But has anyone ever flipped a cig. butt to the ground, and had it come to rest on its end? :eek: I have. And would have bet you (at that moment) THAT, will never happen again! And of course, it damn sure DID, happen again! :smack:
Granted, it was about twenty odd years later. 
I wonder what the odds are, that I’ll do it a third time?
(Both times, I was standing on clean, smooth concrete. Just sayin’…)
This was posed to me by a student (without attaching any conditions/ coin specification). This not being so simple (student argued it should be 1/3),I picked the U.S coin size and posted in dope (where else? ;)).
He meant it this way. " What is the probability of a coin landing ion its edge in a normal flip (coin rotates with its diameter as axis),assuming coin bounces in a random way and finally comes to rest on its edge."
If your student is saying the probability should be 1/3, there’s an easy way to prove him wrong: Take a coin out of your pocket and offer to pay him $3 (or heck, make it $4-- You want him to be able to make a profit) if it lands on edge, but if it lands on a face, he has to pay you $1. Offer to repeat the bet as many times as he’d like.
See link in post #6
My brother once had this happen. What’s really mind-boggling is that before he flipped it he, as a goof, called the edge!!
The girl he was betting with was, ahem, not real bright so while my brother stood there in jaw-dropping astonishment she couldn’t have cared less.
Sounds extremely strange but since I almost shot myself in the head with a pistol by accident 10 years ago I have landed Quarters, Nickels and even Asprin tablets on their “edge” on just a casual flip. I have had witnesses to this and gave us all goose bumps.
Always wondered if their was something that assisted these uncanny events?
Well it’s not a complete myth. You actually can stand an egg on its end on the equator. Then again, you can also do it in Chicago. The Master speaks:
per this study.
(Subsequent to starting this thread, I searched online and located above study.)
Also,
And coin flipping can be manipulated.
Certain people are able to successfully manipulate the toss of a coin. This throws into doubt the validity of using a coin toss to determine a chance result.
Or the Governor just might appoint you to the U.S. Senate.
JBDivmstr, I flipped cigarettes twice also to land on butts. I had a witness the first time. It was over a span of about ten years. I thought I was the only one.:smack:
But if you can make it happen, you can read minds. 
All this time and no mention of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?
Also, a tossed bat after a hit at a MLB baseball game would up upright a year or two ago.
Incidentally, I made a computer simulation once that figured out you need a coin with a height 1.33 times it’s radius to have an exact equal probability of landing on all 3 faces.
See post #33.
From my Forgotten English word-a-day calendar for Nov. 23:
“Nadgers: An expression used when a coin, in tossing, falls upon its edge - neither head nor tail up. - R. Pearse Chope’s Dialect of Hartland, Devonshire, 1891.”
Urban dictionary says it is all balls.