Hey Doc; Thats not quite right. The two coils of a humbucker are wound the same. One is
not reverse-wound. But they connect them internally out-of-phase. Now, lets ignore the magnet for a moment. Those two coils pick up noise out of the air. Since they're connected out of phase, that noise cancels each other out. Doesn't matter if they're wired series or parallel. You are generating opposite polarity voltages in each. Thus, no noise.
Now, lets add the magnet back in. The way the magnet lays under the poles, the stud coils get the north end of the magnet and the screw coils get the south end. Thus, opposite magnet polarity. Now the two coils generate a voltage from the string vibration thats out-of-phase. As mentioned earlier, the coils are connected out-of-phase. Voila . . . signal back in phase.
Its a beautiful system.
Artie
Edit: I should add, I'm not really sure which coil gets north or south. The point is, they get opposite polarity's.