Tales of “Heads or Tails”

It should be easy to tell which is your coins’ obverse (front) and reverse (back). Still, you’re deceiving yourself if you think the obverse always shows a portrait and the denomination. While that may be true of many coins, there are probably more exceptions to the rule than consistency. 

This minor revelation may seem unimportant to most collectors. However, it is always of concern to authors, catalogers, editors, and researchers. All of them rely on that information to accurately determine how coins are manufactured, the development and meaning of the design, and the way illustrations should appear in catalogs and other printed material. In most cases, the final authority rests with the official authorizing act and its wording.

An Important Distinction

Knowing a coin’s “heads” or “tails” is also important in estimating die life. In early coining processes, the reverse (or “hammer”) die deteriorated differently than the obverse (“anvil”) die. Information like this can be invaluable in determining which dies have become damaged and replaced, thus producing a new combination, type, or variety. In medieval literature and modern-day European texts, the two dies are sometimes called the pile and trussell.

This information can help you understand certain peculiarities. Take, for instance, the odd circumstance of the United States’ $1 and $3 gold coins that defy the Coinage Act of 1792. It states, “The front of each coin should display the word Liberty, and the back of each gold and silver coin should display the words United States of America.” Numerous exceptions have recently been used to accommodate modern commemorative coin designs, raising the question of which side should technically be called the obverse or reverse. A modern curiosity is the extremely rare 50 State Quarter obverse combined with the Sacagawea dollar reverse. This leaves us with a challenging choice of which side is which.

Play Time!

In some countries, different terms were used to designate obverse and reverse. It is well known that the ancient Romans enjoyed playing a matching game called Heads or Ships because some of their ancient coins had images of gods on one side and a ship’s prow on the other. The practice is mentioned in the 5th century A.D. account of Roman history known as Macrobius, Saturnalia:

When the Romans first stamped coins, they preserved their reverence for Saturn. On one side of the coin, his own head was pressed, and on the other – because Saturn had been carried there by boat – there was a ship, which was meant to propagate the memory of Saturn to later generations. The fact that coins were thus decorated can be gleaned today from the expression which boys use when gambling; when they throw coins into the air they yell ‘heads or ships,’ and this game serves as a testament to the ancient practice.

A somewhat different form of the game is used in modern times. Two Up is a version of a coin flip game specific to Australia. The name Two Up hints that two coins are flipped. The players then guess, or bet, whether the two coins will land with either heads up, tails up, or one of each.

If you are a gambler, be aware of the possibility of someone using a counterfeit or altered coin to show two images of the same side. These are readily available on the Internet. Never fall for the old saying, “Heads I win, tails you lose!”  

This is not to say that everyone must know the heads or tails of a coin to enjoy their hobby. However, this knowledge will make you a more informed collector. And you’ll learn more than you set out to!