Within the last couple of days, I've seen a post which suggests that there might be some doubt about which is the obverse and reverse on recent-ish UK coins which do not show the usual portrait of Her Majesty. This is no way criticising any such posts.
In the UK we are lucky in having the Royal Mint website which clearly states which is which. Take, for instance, the Crown coin which is the most likely candidate for confusion, the
Royal Mint gives us the answer.
In England at least, the general public use the terms 'heads' for obverse and 'tails' for reverse but if you refer back to reply #39 in this topic, and with the information that the side illustrated is the obverse, you may wonder why the side with a tail (of the horse) on it is the obverse!
What I am really trying to point out here is that we have to be guided by official information (where available) and local knowledge. Rather than argue about which side of a eurocoin is which, let's just accept that a couple of additional words have been introduced to our language; '
common' and '
national'.
Whenever I post illustrations of both sides of a coin, the order that I show them relates solely to my private referencing system which includes the letters o,r and now c,n as appropriate. I always show them in alphabetical order (according to my coding) but it should be obvious which is which; if not, it could be because it is a question being asked.
Does it matter, in this context, which side shows the date or denomination? I think not, because as soon as someone says that it does someone else will give an example of something which proves it wrong.
Are we happy, please, with the terms (in alphabetical order) 'common', 'edge', 'national', obverse' and 'reverse'?
Now, what doubts remain? Let's see if we can find a way of covering coins to which the above does not apply. Possibly we may need to add more words such as 'heraldic' to the list. I do however appreciate that, particularly for early coins, such descriptions may not be possible so if there are illustrations they can simply be referred to as the 'upper' or 'lower' one and further labels become unnecessary.
Bill.