Christ is on the obverse ( left), the emperor on the reverse. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and kept their images on the obverse of coins. After his conquest of ancient Egypt, he allowed himself to be depicted on the obverse of coins 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. This change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. In a Western monarchy, it has been customary, following the tradition of the Hellenistic monarchs and then the Roman emperors, for the currency to bear the head of the monarch on one side, which is almost always regarded as the obverse. Obverse of the tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, intended to be seen as a deity, wearing the attributes of the hero, Heracles/ Hercules. In ancient Greek monarchical coinage, the situation continued whereby a larger image of a deity, is called the obverse, but a smaller image of a monarch appears on the other side which is called the reverse. The opposite side may have varied from time to time. In the many republics of ancient Greece, such as Athens or Corinth, one side of their coins would have a symbol of the state, usually their patron goddess or her symbol, which remained constant through all of the coins minted by that state, which is regarded as the obverse of those coins. Similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena and the reverse is her owl. Generally, the side of a coin with the larger-scale image will be called the obverse (especially if the image is a single head) and, if that does not serve to distinguish them, the side that is more typical of a wide range of coins from that location will be called the obverse. 490 BC, the head of Athena, (left), is regarded as the obverse because of its larger scale and because it is a portrait head the entire owl is depicted in a smaller scale on the reverse. ( November 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. The equivalent terms used in codicology, manuscript studies, print studies and publishing are 'recto' and 'verso'. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the term front is more commonly used than obverse, while usage of reverse is widespread. is used for obverse, while ℞, )( and rev. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. Legend: IMP C M CL TACITVS AVG / VICTORIA GOTTHI A Roman imperial coin of Marcus Claudius Tacitus, who ruled briefly from 275 to 276, follows the convention of obverse and reverse coin traditions. Legend: SABINIA TRANQVILLINA AVG / CONCORDIA AVGG. 241, with the head of Tranquillina on the obverse, or front of the coin, and her marriage to Gordian III depicted on the reverse, or back side of the coin, in smaller scale the coin exhibits the obverse – 'head', or front – and reverse – 'tail', or back – convention that still dominates much coinage today. JSTOR ( January 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Obverse and reverse' – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Double sided coin saying