exergue

plural exergues

1. hobbiesA space beneath the main design on a coin or medal for the insertion of the date or other minor inscription.

   In childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian medals.

   1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson

   1 more example

   In farther eviction of what has been advanced, relative to the initial letters in the exergues of certain Sidonian coins; it may not be improper to observe, that a medal in my small collection exhibits the letter Hheth, immediately after the numerical inscription in the exergue.

   1765, Philosophical Transactions, page 138