Anatomy of a Coin

Coins have been used as money for over two and a half thousand years! The type of coin used by the Romans was first invented in the area that is modern-day Türkiye, and spread across the Mediterranean from about 600 BCE. In the modern day, coins are valuable to archaeologists because they can tell them a lot about Roman society. The study of coins is called “numismatics”.

When archaeologists look at coins, different words are used to refer to parts of them, in order to describe them easily. Here are some of the important features of a coin:

The Obverse and Reverse

• When looking at coins, you need to be able to tell which side is which - as not all Roman coins have heads and tails like modern ones. To tell the two sides apart, they are called the obverse and reverse. The obverse is usually the ‘heads’ side, with a portrait of a ruler, and the reverse has a different design. This is not true for every coin in the world, but it is for the ones in this hoard. Unlike today, Roman coins were not consistent, and the design changed each year. Because of this, they were used to spread political messages.

The Field

• This is the blank space of metal on the coin - anywhere with no pictures or writing!

The Legend

• The legend is the writing on the coin, which is often around the edge in a circle. This is one of the most important bits for archaeologists. It tells them lots of useful information about the message of the coin. It also normally has the name of the ruler who had the coin made, which makes them much easier to tell apart.

The Portrait

• Like the coins people use today, Roman coins had portraits on them. However, these did not always look the same, and some emperors minted coins with their wives or other family members on the portrait. The portrait is very useful when studying coins, as not only do they show the emperor who ruled at the time, but can also narrow down when in their life it was made, based on appearance.

The Exergue

• Some coins have a separate area for text on their reverse (the ‘tails’ side). This area is called the exergue, and it often has information about the person responsible for minting the coin or, as in the example above, who the coin was made for.

The Border

• Many coins have a border, a circle of dots around the edges. However, because it is quite hard to mint a coin perfectly, you may notice that many of the coins in this collection do not have a complete border. This is often due to mistakes made by the coin-producers, which you can read more about here: (LINK)