exergue

noun

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

   “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.”

   “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.”