Mark Keith wrote:
"----so far I don`t recollect anyone actually measuring a real world
coil, and finding max current at the top of the coil."

It could be done but it isn`t the ordinary function of loading coils to
work with low current in and high current out.

One could reason that 1/4-wave back from the open-circuit end of an
antenna element a low-impedance high-current point is created. Since the
function of a loading coil is usually to supply the missing part of a
1/4-wave in a shortened element, one would expect to find the
high-current terminal of the coil facing the transmitter and the low
current end of the coil facing the open-circuit end of the element.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI