My rule of thumb when it comes to medals and tokens is that the side identifying the issuing authority is the obverse - so in this case the side with the ANS name. There will always be exceptions but it works in most cases at least. There are problems with this for some people when it comes to New Zealand tokens that show an effigy of Queen Victoria or Prince Albert: since these tokens were not issued under royal authority, the other side (bearing the issuer's name) is usually taken as the obverse, with the royal personage relegated to the reverse, and in most cases they're catalogued this way. It occurs to me that this could make a good quiz question, though one that might lead to a few fights: "When does 'heads' equal 'tails'?"

I'd like to respond to the question posed in The E-Sylum about how to determine the obverse of a coin or medal.

The rules are a bit different for ancient coins, but in the case of modern world coins, those of the past few hundred years, portraits tend to predominate as obverse devices, with the reverses bearing heraldry and other repeating elements that identify a nation rather than its ruler. The USA followed this same pattern, though the portraits utilized were not those of a ruler until the past hundred years or so.

It gets a little messier with coins that don't feature any kind of portrait. In these instances it seems to me that the overall theme of the coin is the obverse, with the reverse again relegated to heraldry and other statutory inscriptions and devices. Some USA coins pose obvious conflicts with these neat definitions, and an example is the Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar. The standing figure of an Indian is not a portrait in the strictest sense, yet traditionally it has been presented as the coin's obverse, and this has almost been made law by the fact that grading companies always place this side up in their holders, unless the submitter requests otherwise. I believe, however, that the wagon/sun side is actually the obverse, as it portrays the commemorative theme of the coin, that is, the Oregon Trail.

How to define "obverse"? We all know it is the most important side of a two-sided die-struck numismatic item. "I know it when I see it, but can't put it into words" we might say.

But I did want to put it into words for an entry in my Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology. I had to do considerable research. I learned there are five design factors and two technical factors to determine which side is the obverse.

The design factors are: (1) The side bearing a portrait if the item features a person; in countries with a monarch it is the side with the head or bust of the ruler. (2) In the United States our coinage statues arbitrarily defines the obverse as the side bearing the date, irrespective of any other devices. There are, however, some commemorative coins that break this rule.

(3) For art medals, those not struck in a coining press, the obverse is the side with the highest relief. The medal would rest on the side with the least amount of relief. An extreme case would be a convex-concave medal, the domed side is the obverse.

(4) For military decorations writer John Hetsley Mayer states there is a precise side: "the obverse depicts a chief incident of the war; the allegorical representation is actual equivalent of a verbal inscription and so its properly the reverse of the medal." The obverse is always the side indented be shown when worn.

(5) For nonrepresentational art medals, those without lettering and of a design without perspective or orientation on both sides, the obverse is the side the artist so states. (Like a modern art painting, be sure not to hang it upside down!)

The technical factors: (1) In ancient times the obverse of a coin was always placed in the PILE or anvil position when it was struck. Similar today for multiple-struck medals, the obverse, with the highest relief, is placed in the lower position in the press to reseat if after the medal is struck, removed to be annealed, and returned to be struck another blow.

(2) For medals struck without a collar (with open face dies) they must be trimmed (excess metal squeezes out between the dies around the edge). Large such medals are trimmed on a lathe. Smaller medals, say under 1 1/2-inch, can be trimmed on a drop press with a trimming tool. The medal must be designed with a wide border on one side, this has to be on the reverse. The medal must rest on this border for the trimming tool to shear off the excess metal (the flash). So the obverse is the side without the wide border.

In western countries there exists somewhat of an unwritten law to display the obverse to the left or above the reverse, perhaps because we read from left to right, top to bottom. The obverse is seen first. There is an exception to this rule, however. A left facing portrait side could be shown on the right as if the person portrayed is looking at the reverse.

There was more on the obverse and its relationship to the reverse, but I am saving that for my Encyclopedia.