Talk:Obverse and reverse

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Euro

The information on the Euro is incorrect: "The reverse side of each coin shows individual designs relating to the respective Member State" http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/euro0.html

I've just gone through a quick Google search, and the official sources contradict each other. Compare [1] and [2]. What do we do now? —Nightstallion (?) 23:02, 28 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A quick look suggests that ecb.eu and europa.eu exclusively use common reverse and national obverse. Bundesbank.de seems to use that too some of the time:

--Boson (talk) 22:04, 4 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I will provide sources soon that shows that the common side is the obverse, while the national side is the reverse. Will do that in the next few days. Thanks, Miguel.mateo (talk) 00:11, 5 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article still contradicts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_coins on this point. I don't know which is correct, but they ought to agree. sten for the win (talk) 01:29, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The euro coins article has been fixed, it was my mistake and I just forgot to fix it there. Just to clarify the obverse is the national side; the reverse is the common side where the face value of the coin is. FYI, this was fixed in a lot of articles, if you find any inconsistencies out there, either fix it or let us know. Thanks, Miguel.mateo (talk) 02:59, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Opening Line

I don't like the opening line of this article: The terms obverse and reverse apply almost exclusively to currency, . I have never heard obverse used outside of currency, but that's just because it's an uncommon word; I have no reason to believe that it is exclusively used in that field. As for reverse, it is used in all sorts of other situations. Djr36 01:14, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Technical

This article is too technical. I had to read the article twice before I figured out that obverse and reverse and antonyms, not synonyms. 75.1.248.19 17:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Definitions

The terms "Obverse" and "Reverse" (at least in ancien numismatics) refer to which die was used to strike each side of the coin. It has nothing to do with "heads" or "tails" on coins.

To quote from Colin M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins, Berkley and Los Angeles 1976, p. 17 : "Most early coins were struck from one die only, which was set in a working table or anvil; this principal die is known as the obverse die. The secondary side of the coin (its reverse)...came to be adorned with its own type".

In other words to obverse of a coin is the side struck with the fixed die, the die embedded in the anvil, while the reverse is the side of the coin struck with the movable or upper die.

See also Kraay, op.cit. 17, note 4: "It should be noted that on a Greek coins the 'head' may be on either the obverse or the reverse". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.57.96.1 (talk) 18:25, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alexander

QUOTE: "The change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great , which continued to be minted long after his death. After his conquest of Egypt he allowed himself to be depicted on the obverse as a god-king, at least partly because he thought this would help secure the allegiance of the Egyptians, who had regarded their previous monarchs, the Pharaohs as divine. The various Hellenisic rulers who were his successors kept their busts on the obverse." END QUOTE

The coins of Alexander (I suppose we are talking about his tetradrachms, as the one pictured in the article) never bore his portrait. The type was always Herakles (Hercules), one of Alexander's illustrious "ancestors" but never the man himself*. Only after the death of Alexander did some of his successors hesitantly start putting his (Alexander's) portrait on their coins and it was only after c.300 that the first rulers actually placed their own portrait on a coin (and thus for the first time we have the portrait of a living person on a coin).

There, is of course, quite q lively discussion among numismatists and historians as to whether the Hercules on Alexander's coins had the traits or caracteristics of the King himself. Most scholars, however, nowdays agree that there should be no confusion that the personage depicted in Hercules and not Alexander. It has been suggested that the depiction of a living man on a coin presupposes a social environment that was not yet present at the time of Alexander (acceptance of a living man as a Deity, something that the Greek world was onle ready to accept about half a century after the coins under discussion were struck). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Getas75 (talk • contribs) 18:39, 16 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whether the widely varied subjects of Alexander were as aware, and were intended to be as aware, of this fine distinction compared to "numismatists and historians" may be doubted. The Greeks expected to see gods not Kings on their coins, but many of the largest conquered peoples expected the opposite. The coins were sufficiently ambiguous to meet all expectations. Johnbod (talk) 14:24, 18 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Purpose of terms

It appears from the article that the obverse is generally considered the primary side and the reverse the secondary side. Is it possible to have an explanation of why it is necessary to consider a coin to have a primary and secondary side? Some coins appear to use each side for a different purpose and perhaps in these cases I understand the meaning of the obverse/reverse distinction - though even in these cases the uses of the sides are simply different, not always primary and secondary. And in the case of many coins the article suggests that the important information is shared between the two sides. What then is the purpose of selecting one as the obverse and one as the reverse in these cases? Jowiltshire (talk) 15:45, 16 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]