Dates On Canadian Coins

NDS -- Is the portrait of the queen the obverse?

Let me tell you a story. A number of years ago I was in Winnipeg visiting some friends, and I complained that it took me a while to come up with the correct change for something -- it's not important. Anyway, one of the Canadians said, "It's not hard to tell our coins apart," and I said, "Yes, it is -- they all have the Queen on the front." And she drew herself up and looked down her nose at me and said coldly, "That's the back."

I assumed that this particular Canadian was not a fan of the monarchy, which is why she said that. But a couple years ago I bought a 1972 uncirculated set of Canadian coins, comes in a nice case from the RCM, and all the coins in it are queen-side down; that is, the side with the date is what's on display.

So -- maybe in Canada the Queen is not the obverse. We're used to thinking of the portrait side as "heads," but just out of curiosity, maybe we could get some Canadians to weigh in on this.

Jan

In All British commonwealth coinage series, the "obverse" is the one with the monarch's portrait.

Still, just because we numismatists call one side the "obverse" doesn't mean the ordinary guy in the street is going to call that same side the "front". The "front", as far as most people are concerned, is the more important side, and/or the side with a distinctive design to help tell the denomination apart from others. In Canadian/Commonwealth coins, the obverses for all denominations are essentially the same, and for Canadian coins the obverse is even "less important" because it doesn't state the date or denomination.

Here in Oz, the mint sets are sold "obverse-side down", too - but the Queen's head is still labelled the "obverse" on the packaging.

As to NDS's question, I like the Canadian coin layout - all the information you need to know about a coin (date, type, denomination, country) all on one side, without having to flip it over. Very convenient.

In 2002 all dates on Canadian coinage were placed on the obverse. They were double dates 1952-2002 for the Queens 50thanniv. on the throne. It was strange not seeing the dates where they normaly were. Some coins like the $2.00 twoonie have always had the date on the obverse.