Is there any rule of thumb for determining the obverse and reverse of German and Austrian notgeld? I have several hundred of these but no catalogs to follow. Many seem to have a denomination and artwork on one side and the name of issuing body, date, and serial number on the other side. My gut feeling would be to have the side with the most artwork as the obverse and the side with the most text as the reverse but those already in the Numista catalog seem to have both ways or perhaps mostly the text side as the obverse. I could go to Colnect to see a lot of them but I don't know if they are reliable. I think it will be a real major and slow effort to enter those I have and I want to have as much preparation as I can manage before embarking on the project.
I usually use the side with the issuers name on it as the obverse. When sets were issued, this makes life a little easier as the obverse generally has the same picture on it.
I do use the Colnect website for various forms of information, including the obverse/reverse situation.
Whether or not there is an actual true method I do not know but the issuer is still my main approach
