How to say "head" and "tails" when flipping a coin? While talking about probability with mainland Chinese students I asked what they say for heads and tails of a Chinese coin. I was tossing a one Yuan coin, and they decided I could say in English &quot;flower&quot; and &quot;number&quot;.
I did not want to go on talking about language so I did not ask what they actually say in Chinese. But when I search on line I do not find anything like this. I mostly found 正面 and 反面, which are also what Google Translate offers.
I wonder if 正面 and 反面 are just the technically correct terms, like &quot;obverse&quot; and &quot;reverse&quot; in English, which most people never say.
Are there more common mainland expressions for the sides of a coin?
Chinese use 正反 more than US people use obverse/reverse.

Other words are  花/字, but the side is controversial.

The side of 中华人民共和国 is 正面, but many many people think 1元 is 正面, this would be more confused if you use 字/花. Which side is 字, is it 正面?


China bank realized this problem, the new coin:



Now 中国人民银行and 1 元 are on the same side, that is 正面, in this case 字 is 正面, 花 is 反面.

In some dialect, people use 字/背.