The word "medal" comes from French and traces back through Middle Latin "medallia," meaning 'small coin,' to Latin "metallum," meaning 'metal.' In the Renaissance, medals were first used as art objects, modeled after Roman heavy coins. Originally, medals were cast from metal. Since the introduction of coin minting processes, medals are also minted, with few exceptions. The medal resembles a plaque and is occasionally confused with it. Plaques typically display a one-sided raised representation, while medals feature imagery or text on both sides. The fact that the front and back (obverse and reverse) of the medal are usually designed differently gives rise to the expression "the flip side of the coin," which conveys that a given situation can have both advantages and disadvantages. The term "flip side" is a Germanization of "reverse," which emerged in the second half of the 18th century. The author Karl Domanig (1851-1913) was a writer and numismatist. As a numismatist, he became an assistant curator in 1884 and later the director of the k.k. Coin and Antiquities Cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This volume is illustrated with 871 black-and-white coin images. It is a reprint of the historical original edition from 1907.