What has a head and a tail but no body?

How to think about it

1. Any animal with a head and a tail also has a body in between, so the answer cannot be a creature.
2. Think of objects whose two sides have those names. The words “heads” and “tails” are used together in one very common situation.
3. That situation is flipping something to make a decision. Picture the object in the air.
4. A coin shows a head on one face and a tail on the other, with no body anywhere.

Why “a coin” is the answer

Coins have a “heads” side, traditionally stamped with a face, and a “tails” side, the reverse. Those are the only two sides it has, so there is no body to speak of. The riddle plays on names that came from the portrait on old coins and stuck even on coins that show no face at all.

Common wrong answers

• A snake. A snake has a head and a tail, but the long stretch between them is its body.
• A comet. A comet has a head and a tail in astronomy, but it also has a nucleus that works as its body, and it is not the everyday object the riddle has in mind.