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 Replies: 15 / Views: 2,659 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2130 Posts |
Are all German coins minted with the obv. and rev. inthe upright position? inotherwords if I hold the coin between my thumb and forefinger and turn it left to right both rev. and obv. will still be upright?  Moved to World Coins forum - SapEdited by chris12018
02/02/2010 09:02 am
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Moderator
 Australia
16861 Posts |
Yes. That's normal for German coins.
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
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2130 Posts |
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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Don't quote me on this, but there maybe some German States stuff, pre-1871 stuff, that is in medal-rotation. But everything from the start of the Deutsches Reich to current, is in coin-rotation; excluding die-rotation errors...
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
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But everything from the start of the Deutsches Reich to current, is in coin-rotation Correct, except that Americans usually call that alignment medal orientation.  These days most coins in the world have this parallel alignment. The inverted orientation, used in the US for example, is common in Central/South America, and in a few countries beyond that. Christian |
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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Chris, so the American's invert coin- and medal-orientation (orientation is the correct expression - no idea where I was getting 'rotation' from!)? Thats 'interesting'...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
So medal/coin orientation is different depending where you live? Don't all medals have the same orientation? Apparently not? I'm confused. (Not hard to do!  ) |
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Moderator
Australia
16861 Posts |
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So medal/coin orientation is different depending where you live? No. I'm afraid Zaggy has it back to front. "Coin orientation" (180 degrees rotation, or "the way Americans align their dies for their coins") was once normal for most coins, back in the early 1800's when the term was invented. Most of the world switched to "medal orientation" for their coins sometime in the 1800's, but the old "upside down" position is still called "coin orientation", no matter which way "coins" are normally "oriented" in your country. 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
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Pillar of the Community
United States
677 Posts |
Thanks, Sap! It's nice to know that I'm not going crazy!  |
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
No, you're not. I was just playing with terms such as "coin alignment" or "medal alignment" - they just don't make sense for people in countries where coins do not have the "US style" alignment.  Christian |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2130 Posts |
Thank You all very much for your knowledge on the subject. I guess there is always and will always be more to learn.
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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
So hang on, COIN-ALIGNMENT is (or is not?) rotating the coin around a VERTICAL AXIS and MEDAL-ALIGNMENT is (or is not) rotating around the HORIZONTAL AXIS?
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Pillar of the Community
Luxembourg
588 Posts |
If you can turn a piece around its vertical axis the alignment is called medal alignment, because medals could be worn on a chain and you wanted the picture to be always upright, no matter what side was visible.
In opposition to that at the era when the terms have been created, the coins were minted with the other alignment to differ them from medals.
This is a historical definition and does not change with the modern alignment of the country you are living in.
In many European countries, the coins have been minted in coin alignment until the introduction of the euro, which is minted in medal alignment.
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
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This is a historical definition and does not change with the modern alignment of the country you are living in. May well be that this use of terms is normal even in the UK. However, it still is an English term. In Germany for example those expressions (or their theoretical German equivalents) have never been in use. Well, not in the past few centuries.  Christian |
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Moderator
Australia
16861 Posts |
Zaggy: the answer o your questions is, "not". "The normal way around" for US and pre-euro French coins (horizontal axis) is coin alignment; hold your thumb and fingers at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock to rotate the coin "properly". The "normal way around" for Australian, British and German coins (vertical axis) is medal alignment; hold your thumb and fingers at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock to rotate the coin "properly". The whole adjectival system does cause confusion, especially for residents of countries whose everyday circulating coins are not "coin-aligned". In catalogues such as Spink, arrow pairs are normally used instead. This website doesn't support up and down arrow characters, but you can make do with the lowercase letter v and the carat sign ^. You can even use the greater than > and less than < signs for sideways (90 degree rotation) alignments, if you encounter them. So: coin alignment is ^v and medal alignment is ^^. 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
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Yep, the Schön coin catalogs use those arrow pairs too, in case both orientations (may) occur. By the way, don't trust Wikipedia in this regard. This article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_orientation says that "Coins with coin orientation include United States coinage, South Korean coinage, Thai coinage, Swiss coinage and pre-Euro French coinage." Hmm, Swiss coins have been in what Americans call medal orientation for about 30 years ... As for turning a coin around so that the other side is "properly" shown, with ^v you can do that with one hand, while a ^^ coin I would hold with two fingers of one hand and rotate it with the index finger of the other hand. But maybe that's just me, hehe. The reason for this trend towards parallel alignment in modern coinage (this is just a guess though) could be ... collectors. With a single raw coin, or one in a 2x2 holder, the orientation does not really matter. If you have coins in a "book style" album, however, turning a page would show the other side of a ^v coin upside down. Also, many special issues and sets now come in fancy folders. And again, you "proceed" to the other side by turning a page, as with a book. Christian |
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Replies: 15 / Views: 2,659 |
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Posted 02/03/2010 06:32 am
