Medal Axis ?!?! - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 3,747
AgCoinAu Pillar of the Community Canada 3049 Posts	Posted 02/21/2014 10:18 pm So I have always commonly refered to a coin as either having "up-up" or an "up-down" type axis but I know these aren't the formal names for it... then I read in one article about the coin having a medal axis... unfortunately no pictures were included so I'm not sure if that actually up-up (I think it would be but double checking) Also if I am correct and medal axis is the correct term for coinage that I have been calling "up-up".. then what is the correct term for coinage with an "up - down " axis? Report this Post to the Staff

denco7 Pillar of the Community United States 2543 Posts	Posted 02/21/2014 10:22 pm Medals are up,up ......coins are up, down. EDIT: Just noticed that we were in the Canadian Forum, what I said only holds true for U.S. coins. Some world coins have a medal axis, bout are still referred to as coins. Edited by denco7 02/21/2014 10:25 pm Report this Post to the Staff
chequer Pillar of the Community Canada 4227 Posts	Posted 02/21/2014 10:28 pm Yes, up-up is medal and coins is up-down. Report this Post to the Staff
colonialtokens Pillar of the Community United States 840 Posts	Posted 02/21/2014 10:40 pm I respectfully beg to differ. Medal die axis is also referred to as straight die axis and is oftentimes identified in literature as shewing two parallel arrows (tips pointing upwards). Coinage die axis is also referred to as upset die axis and is oftentimes identified in literature as shewing two paralled arrows (one pointing upward, the other pointing downward. When holding the obverse in the upright position, rotate the coin 180 degrees to either the right or left (not top to bottom). When rotated, if the reverse is also in the upright position, the coin has a straight die axis. If the reverse is up-side-down, the coin has a coinage die or upset axis. The reason I begged to differ, is that many colonial tokens and others have both die axis. And yes, most Canadian decimal coinage has medal die axis, but up-set or coinage die axis exist (the 1858 large cent, for ensample). doug Report this Post to the Staff
DBM Pillar of the Community Canada 9864 Posts	Posted 02/22/2014 12:57 am For all Canadian coins 1908 and later the default alignment is medal axis. Large cents prior to 1908 are also medal axis. All Canadian silver coins prior to 1908 are coinage axis. "Dipping" is not considered cleaning... -from PCGS website Report this Post to the Staff
kuh_85 Pillar of the Community Canada 2366 Posts	Posted 02/22/2014 01:02 am Medal axis is so called because when a medal is pinned on someone's chest you rotate it around the vertical axis (IE spin it on the ribbon) to see the back. Coinage axis is so called because you would flip the coin in your fingers around the horizontal access to see the back. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16826 Posts	Posted 02/22/2014 02:40 am The use of "coin" and "medal" to describe coin die orientation was a convention established way back in the 1700s. Back then, most machine-struck coins had coin orientation. Ever since then, more and more countries have switched to medal orientation for their coins; America is now one of the last countries to continue to routinely strike coins in coin orientation. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
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