Friday, March 23, 2018

Ball Terminal

Here is the inscription on a coin of Mithradates the Great, circa 85-75 BC. (Not mine. A dealer photo.)

The characters have circles at the ends. If the ends had been lines we would call them "serifs". Many years ago I tried to learn the term for characters with circles on the ends but eventually gave up. Today, while reading an article on the typography of James Mitchener's novel cover art, I stumbled onto the term “ball terminal”.

Exactly what I was looking for. Now I can search for this term ... and find very little.