By Alan Herbert, Coins Magazine October 05, 2009

One of the quickest ways of starting a hobby debate is to bring up the subject of obverses and reverses. The two words in themselves are prone to start an argument. What is the point of having two special terms that apply only to coins, tokens and medals?

It’s just one of the many things we have to teach to beginning collectors. For the sake of argument, why don’t we refer to them as front or back, which the average person already knows? As most of you know, it’s not easy to become a coin collector.

Fellow collectors whose interest lies in the realm of paper money do use front and back in describing notes, to the utter confusion of the novice, who gets reprimanded if he refers to the obverse of a bill or the back of a coin. Tradition plays a major role, and as is so often the case, it leaves us stuck with a lot of convoluted definitions.

The big Webster’s dictionary that I have already disagrees with what I just said, limiting the obverse term just to coins. Unfortunately from there it degenerates into terminology only an English professor would understand or appreciate. Then comes the kicker—“The side facing the observer.” Anyone want to drive a truck through that? The heated discussion is already starting.

Then the dictionary says, “The opposite side from the back.” Since the back definition says “opposite to the front,” we are trapped in a language loop from which there is no escape.

Imagine, if you will, the problems facing a cataloger of world coins faced with diametrically opposed definitions of obverse and reverse from various countries. This is the problem faced by the editors of the Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins. After considerable discussion, debate, research and consultation they agreed to two definition policies:



The policies are:

1. For those coins depicting the ruler or monarch of a country, the bust side is the obverse.
2. For those coins from a republic or other non-regal form of government, the side with the designation of the country is the obverse.



A major exception are the U.S. issues, which follow traditional hobby practice and federal law and describe the obverse as the side bearing the date. There are other exceptions, since the catalogers are dealing with several hundred countries and coin-issuing government bodies.

For example, on the German coins, those showing the princes or kings (German States) have the bust side as the obverse, while national issues show the side with “DEUTSCHES REICH,” etc., as the obverse. While this conflicts with the German and Mexican practice of considering the side with the eagle (national symbol) as the obverse, it is done to give the catalog uniformity.

Obviously it doesn’t settle the argument, but it seems to satisfy the majority of collectors.

Early records indicate that the U.S. Mint made a habit of referring to the dated die as the obverse, which caused confusion with such coins as the gold $1 and $3, which have the date on the reverse. The Coinage Act of 1873 designated the side of a coin with the date as the obverse. The gold dollars and gold $3s struck prior to the act have the date on the reverse, while those struck after the act have it on the obverse. But they are still the same side of the coin.

Long after this decision was made, the exceptions continued to crop up. Other countries may follow the U.S. Mint’s lead and change their laws to match. Given that this impinges on national pride, it’s not likely there will ever be total agreement.

Catalogers are working at both ends of the scale. Though they list and picture new releases, showing the obverse for each new coin, following the policies listed above, they also are listing old coins, minted long before anyone cared about which was which. As an example, the so-called “dumb heller” coins of Austria don’t give the name of the issuing country, allowing you to flip a coin to decide which side is the obverse. For cataloging purposes, the side with the national symbol, the double-headed eagle, is considered to be the obverse.

For those of you who stick strictly to U.S. coins, other than the problem of the switch mentioned above and some commemoratives, they have stuck strictly with using the date side as the obverse, or front of the coin.