VOCABULARY WORDS: COIN, TOKEN AND MEDAL SHAPES

My partner in Signature Art Medals, Mark Schlepphorst, this week asked me for a list of medal shapes. I remembered a list I compiled a few years ago and retrieved it from the computer.

I handed it to him and he read the first line, "Has there ever been an acorn shaped medal?" Yes, I replied, Medallic Art Company struck an acorn shaped medal. But what about all these other shapes? I had to admit they are also from tokens in addition to medals, as I had searched all token shapes which often included the name of the open area in the center of tokens. So call the list numismatic item shapes to cover all coins, medals and tokens.

In addition to the common name for each shape I also added the formal name. While extremely accurate, the formal name often sends a reader to the dictionary to identify its meaning. Why not just give the common name?

I like redundancy, so in cataloging I often include both terms. (Like lawyers do in writing contracts: spell out an amount then give the figures in parenthesis.) A newspaper editor wound edit out first and leave the second, they so dislike redundancy.

So here's the list of seventy-three (73) numismatic shapes:

• Acorn-shaped - Balanoid
• Almond-shaped - Mandorola
• Arrowhead-shaped - Sagittate
• Barrel-shaped - Dolioform
• Bell-shaped - Campaniform
• Boat-shaped - Navicular
• Book-shaped - Libriform
• Coin-shaped - Nummiform
• Corners cut off - Clipper corners or Handerchief corners
• Crescent-shaped - Lunular
• Cross-shaped - Cruciform
• Diamond-shaped - Lozenge or Rhomboidal
• Dome-shaped - Cupola
• Donut or anchor-ring-shaped -Toroid
• Droplet-shaped or tear-shaped - Globular
• Egg-shaped - Ovoid
• Eight-sided - Octagon
• Eye-shaped - Oculiform
• Fan-shaped - Flabellate
• Feather-shaped - Pinnate
• Fish-shaped - Pisciform
• Five-sided - Pentagon or pentagonal
• Flower-shaped - Floriform
• Four-sided - Square
• Four sided (wider at top with knotched top corners and sloping sides) - Keystone
• Foot-shaped - Pediform
• Funnel-shaped - Infundibular
• Greek letter Upsilon-shaped - Hypsiloid
• Greek letter Tau-shaped - Tau-shaped
• Half round - Lunnette
• Hand-shaped - Palmate
• Head-shaped - Capitate
• Heart-shaped - Cordiform
• Helmet-shaped - Galeate
• Horn-shaped - Cornual
• Horseshoe or omega-shaped - Omegoid
• Human-shaped - Hominiformn
• Ivy-shaped - Hederiform
• Key-hole-shaped - Clithridiate
• Kidney-shaped - Nephroid or Reniform
• Leaf-shaped - Foliform
• Lens-shaped - Lenticular
• Mouth-shaped - Oriform
• Nine-sided - Nonagon
• Oval-shaped - Ellipsoidal
• Oval (vertical) with two pointed ends - Vesica piscis
• Pear-shaped - Pyriform
• Pouch or purse-shaped - Bursiform
• Ring-shaped - Annular or Cricoid
• Rounded top, square bottom - Tombstone
• S-shaped - Sigmoid
• Saucer-shaped - Scyphate
• Seven-sided - Heptagon
• Shell-shaped - Conchiform
• Shield-shaped - Scutiform
• Six-pointed star shape - Pentacle
• Six-sided - Hexagon
• Spiral-shaped - Volute
• Star-shaped - Stellate
• Ten-sided - Decagon.
• Three-sided - Triangular or Triquetra
• Tooth-shaped - Dentiform or Dentilated
• Tree-shaped - Dendriform
• Twelve-sided - Duodecagon
• Twenty-sided - Icosagon
• Twenty-four-sided - Tetraicosagon
• U-shaped - Hyoid
• Urn-shape - Urceoform
• Violin-shaped - Pandurate
• Wavy rounded edges - Scalloped
• Wedge-shape.- Cuniform
• Wing-shaped - Aliform
• Without symmetric form - Free-form

If the shape you are seeking is not listed above -- and it's not free-form -- use the term "unusual shape." But remember if it is silhouetted, as around the head of a person, that is not an unusual shape -- it's just "silhouetted."

Editor Wayne Homren was thrilled with one term (typographic, see above). He ought to be ecstatic with seventy-three (73)!

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web