Terminology


 * Coin Purpose
 * MEDAL - A piece coined for the purpose of commemorating some historical event or as an award for personal merit. It is never intended to pass for money. (From the Italian medaglia, a term traced to the 14th century, applied to a coin outside of circulation, valuable only for its historical or artistic features.
 * Commemorative – A coin struck to commorate an event, usually a coronation, jubilee, Royal event or Important person. Commemorative coins usually do not circulate but have a monetary face value.
 * AMULETS The name given to certain coins or medals that are supposed to have talismanic qualities to them such as warding off evil, disease, accidents, etc.
 * DENKMUNZE - A commemorative cloth or medal.
 * Gedachtrismunzen - A commemorative coin struck for a public jubilee.
 * Token – Pledges of value. A privately issued coin which stands for a normal coin value. Often they are not legal tender but have been widely accepted locally due to the shortage of


 * FACE - The 2 faces of a coin or medal are called obverse and reverse.
 * obverse – technically the side of the coin that is uppermost when the coin is struck but usually referred to as the side ‘with the head on it’. The obverse of a coin is the side which bears the more important device or inscription, the other side is called the reverse.
 * reverse – technically the side of the coin that is face down when the coin is struck but also correctly used to describe the ‘tail’ side without e.g., the monarch on it and usually considered of less importance than the ‘head’. From the Latin revertere to turn over. The opposite of Obverse. The inscriptions on the reverse of a coin are usually considered of lesser import than those on the obverse.


 * Legend (the name given to all of the writing on the coin. Usually consisting of Latin abbreviations. For example on a Victorian Young head bronze Half Penny the obverse legend is ‘VICTORIA D:G: BRITT: REG F.D.’
 * Anepigraphic is the term used for a coin or medal with no legend. Same as mute.
 * Mute – A ‘silent’ coin. Same as Anepigraphic.
 * Blundered Inscription – A mistake made with the writing on a coin. Sometimes due to the illiteracy of the person making the dies (often the tribes that copied the Roman and Greek ancient coins) or more recently an error.


 * Die Axis – The angle at which the top and bottom coin dies oppose each other when the coin is struck. All circulating British coins are up/up. In other words you can hold a coin by the top and bottom, turn it around and the other side is up the correct way up.  The other main die axis is when you hold a coin by the top and bottom, turn it around and the other side is upside down. Some refer to this 180 degree rotation by the term up/down. During ancient times coins often had random die rotation depending on how the dies were placed before striking.