Obverse and reverse

The "two-sided" , "mirror" , and "equal" symbols are further used to describe the relationship between the obverse and reverse sides of a flag.

In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the term front is more commonly used than obverse, while usage of reverse is widespread.

[citation needed] Generally, the side of a coin with the larger-scale image will be called the obverse (especially if the image is a single head) and, if that does not serve to distinguish them, the side that is more typical of a wide range of coins from that location will be called the obverse.

Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena and the reverse is her owl.

This change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death.

After his conquest of ancient Egypt, he allowed himself to be depicted on the obverse of coins as a god-king, at least partly because he thought this would help secure the allegiance of the Egyptians, who had regarded their previous monarchs, the pharaohs, as divine.

Additional space typically reflects the issuing country's culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the state's territory.

In Japan, from 1897 to the end of World War II, the following informal conventions existed: The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so (equally informally): Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom (and predecessor kingdoms going back to the Middle Ages) almost always feature the head of the monarch.

By tradition, each British monarch faces in the opposite direction of his or her predecessor; this is said to date from 1661, with Charles II turning his back on Oliver Cromwell.

Current UK coinage features the following abbreviated Latin inscription: D[EI] G[RATIA] REX F[IDEI] D[EFENSOR] ('By the Grace of God King, Defender of the Faith').

The United States government long adhered to including all of the following: The ten-year series of Statehood quarters, whose issue began in 1999, was seen as calling for more space and more flexibility in the design of the reverse.

The flag of Saudi Arabia is an exception to both conventions, with a right-hoisted ("sinister" ) obverse and an equal reverse to correctly arrange the calligraphic Shahada on both sides.