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Obverse, reverse, legend, exergue, edge — the parts, and which carries what.
Also known as: Parts of a coin, How to identify a coin, Coin anatomy
A coin is laid out to a convention old enough to be Roman. Learning the five parts makes an unfamiliar coin readable in a way that recognising any single design never does: the head side identifies the issuing authority, the tail side the denomination or commemoration, and the small print below the design usually carries the date and the mint.
A coin has an obverse, conventionally the side bearing the issuing authority's head or emblem; a reverse; a legend, the lettering running round the edge of the field; an exergue, the space below the main design; and an edge, which may itself be lettered or milled.
Contexts: History
The obverse identifies who issued it and the reverse what it is worth or what it commemorates, which is why a reader trying to place an unknown coin should start with the head side and not the interesting one.
The exergue is where the date and mint mark usually sit, so the smallest lettering on a coin is generally the part that dates and places it.
Edge lettering and milling began as anti-clipping measures: a coin whose edge is intact cannot have had silver shaved from it, which is why the practice arrived with milled coinage in the seventeenth century.
from the seventeenth century
A circular metal disc with a raised design in the centre, lettering curving round the rim in an arc, and smaller lettering in the space below the design.
The mint mark is one of the marks on a coin.