Pile Öffentlichkeit Deposited
are obsolete Scottish terms which corresponded to what are now known as the obverse and reverse dies.
Cochran-Patrick in Records of the Coin- age of Scotland, 1876 (I. introd. 49), has the following: "Each moneyer had two irons or puncheons, one of which was called the pile, and the other the trussell. The pile was from seven to eight inches long, and was firmly fixed in a block of wood. On the pile was engraved one side of the coin, and on the trussed the other."
In the Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1562-63 (i. 227), occurs the following entry: "Ane pile and ane tursall maid for cunyeing of certane pecis of gold and silvir, the pile havand sunkin thairin foure lettris. "
Pile is used in French for the reverse of a coin.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)