In the previous issue of The E-Sylum Dick Johnson made an off-hand comment about the correct orientation of a coin or medal. "The Mussolini token illustration in last week's E-Sylum,which Editor Wayne stated was intact and could not be oriented correctly, brought to mind the task of orientation. The human mind craves correct visual perspective, everything on the level."

Allow me to point out that in fact, "correct" orientation is learned from your cultural context and is not inherent to the human mind. Numismatics offers many counter-examples.

About 15 years ago, Geraldine Chimirri-Russell discovered that some issues of Celtic coins, which to us seem "Picasso-like" orient to correct 3-dimensional presentations of the human face whenviewed at an angle. I attended a conference where she made this announcement ahead of her publications. Since then, her work has been reproduced and been cited by others. See for example, Moneyfor Trade: A New View of Icenian Coinage by John Talbot (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2017).

Preparing an article for the now-defunct Celator about the great fairs of Champagne in the Middle Ages (whence the "troy" actually Troyez ounce of precious metal), I found coins struck overa thousand years later that still exhibited that orientation. According to Chimirri-Russell, we only learned to accept the front-on view with vanishing-point perspective as a result of Renaissancepainting.

Chimirri-Russell wrote:

See: "Taking an Oblique Point of View: The Challenges of Interpretation and Display in Museums," The International Journal of the Humanities, Volume 5, Issue 12, pp.115-126, available at http://geraldineechimirri-russell.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.26/prod.1281 .

Classical Numismatic Group > Electronic Auction 413
Auction date: 31 January 2018
Lot number: 637

FRANCE, Provincial. Blois (Comté). temp. Thibaut III. Circa 1037-1089/90. AR Denier (20mm, 1.10 g, 5h). Stylized Blois-style head right; pellet to right / + BEISIS C?STIO, cross pattée. Duplessy,Féodales 578; Legros 968; Poey d'Avant 1690; Roberts 5056. VF, lightly toned.

Mike adds:

Here is a BNS newsletter that cites her presentation in 2004:
THE BRITISH NUMISMATIC SOCIETY Newsletter July 2004 (https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Newsletter_July_04.pdf)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
TIPS ON COIN DESIGN ORIENTATION (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n08a14.html)