obversantt (obversant)

[ obverse (ob-vers' as an adj., ob'vers as a noun), a. and n. [F. obvers = Sp. Pg. obverso, obverse script i on or device. - 2. In bot., having the base narrower than the top, as a leaf. - Obverse aspect or view, in entom., the appearance of an insect when seen with the head toward the observer. - Obverse tool, a tool having the smaller end toward the haft or stock. E. H. Knight. II. n. 1. In numis ., the face or principal side of a coin or medal, as distinguished from the other side, called the reverse . See numismatics , and cuts under maravedi , medallion , and merk2 . Of the two sides of a coin, that is called the obverse which bears the more important device or inscription. In early Greek coins it is the convex side; in Greek and Roman imperial it is the side bearing the head; in med iæval and modern that bearing the royal effigy, or the king's name, or the name of the city; and in Oriental that on which the inscription begins. The other side is called the reverse. Encyc. Brit. XVII. 630. Hence-2. A second aspect of the same fact; a correlative proposition identically implying another. The fact that it [a belief] invariably exists being the ob verse of the fact that there is no alternative belief. H. Spencer.