Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Mexican 8 Reales Cap and Rays
The classic silver dollar of independent Mexico, showing a radiant Phrygian liberty cap over mountains, widely trusted and traded across the Americas and Asia for most of the 19th century.
Latin American
Korean Gwangmu Half Won (1905)
Silver half-won coin from the short-lived Korean Empire's Gwangmu currency reform, struck shortly before Korea fell under increasing Japanese control.
Asian
Yuan Shih-kai Dollar ("Fat Man Dollar")
A widely circulated Republic of China silver dollar bearing the portrait of President Yuan Shikai, nicknamed the "Fat Man Dollar" for his rounded features and became China's standard silver coin for years.
Asian
Swedish Krona
The krona has been Sweden's national currency since 1873, originally struck in silver as part of the Scandinavian Monetary Union and today issued in base metals bearing the reigning monarch's portrait.
European
Gobrecht Dollar
A transitional silver dollar designed by Christian Gobrecht featuring a seated Liberty obverse and a flying eagle reverse, bridging older and newer designs in U.S. coinage.
United States
United States Trade Dollar
A heavier silver dollar issued specifically for trade with China and East Asia, the Trade Dollar circulated internationally before being demonetized and later collected as a design classic.
United States
Franklin Half Dollar
A 90% silver half dollar (1948-1963) depicting Benjamin Franklin on the obverse and the Liberty Bell on the reverse, designed by John R. Sinnock.
United States
Bolivia 8 Reales (Potosi Mint)
A major Spanish colonial and early Bolivian silver dollar struck at the legendary Potosí mint, fed by the immense silver deposits of the Cerro Rico mountain.
Latin American
George V Fifty Cents
Canada's fifty-cent silver coin issued under King George V, spanning a reduction in silver fineness in 1920 and including the famously rare 1921 date.
Canadian
Joachimsthaler
Struck beginning in 1520 in the Bohemian silver-mining town of Joachimsthal, this large silver coin gave its name, shortened to 'thaler' and later 'dollar,' to countless currencies around the world.
European
Spanish Colonial Cob 8 Reales (Macuquina)
A crudely hand-struck Spanish colonial silver coin, cut from irregular silver bars and stamped with a cross and shield, famed worldwide as the original 'piece of eight'.
Latin American
French 5 Francs "Napoleon"
A large silver crown-sized coin bearing the portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, first as First Consul and later as Emperor, marking France's decimal franc system's early flagship silver denomination.
European
Nero Denarius
The silver coin of the notorious emperor Nero, whose AD 64 currency reform slightly reduced the denarius's silver content and weight, a step in the long history of Roman debasement.
Ancient
French Indochina Sarraut Piastre (1931)
A reduced-weight silver piastre introduced in 1931 for French Indochina after rising world silver prices made the older, larger trade piastre worth more in bullion than in face value.
Asian
Yuan Shikai 'Fatman' Dollar (1914)
A widely produced Republic of China silver dollar bearing the portrait of President Yuan Shikai, nicknamed the fat man dollar for his portly likeness, one of the most common historic Chinese silver coins.
Asian
Lysimachos Tetradrachm (Alexander/Athena)
A silver tetradrachm struck by King Lysimachos, one of Alexander the Great's successors, showing the deified Alexander with a ram's horn and a seated Athena on the reverse.
Ancient
Naxos Silenus Tetradrachm (Sicily)
A silver tetradrachm from the Sicilian Greek colony of Naxos, celebrated for its masterful head of Dionysos and a vividly rendered seated Silenus on the reverse.
Ancient
Australian Holey Dollar and Dump
In 1813, colonial authorities in New South Wales punched the centers out of Spanish silver dollars to create two coins from one, easing a severe coin shortage while preventing the silver from leaving the colony.
Africa & Oceania
Monroe Doctrine Centennial Half Dollar
A 1923 U.S. commemorative half dollar marking the 100th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, featuring an allegorical map of the Americas.
Commemorative
Poseidonia (Paestum) Poseidon Stater
An early Magna Graecia silver stater from Poseidonia showing the sea god Poseidon striding forward with a raised trident, named for and emblematic of the city itself.
Ancient
Aegina Land Tortoise Stater
A silver stater from the island of Aegina bearing a land tortoise, successor to the earlier sea-turtle design and among the earliest widely circulated coinages in the Greek world.
Ancient
Italian Scudo (Papal States)
A large silver coin issued by the Papal States under successive popes, blending religious imagery with the temporal authority of the papacy.
European
Norwegian Speciedaler
Norway's principal silver coin from the establishment of its independent currency in 1816 until the krone reform of the 1870s.
European
Austrian Florin (Gulden)
The main silver coin of Austria-Hungary in the second half of the 19th century, used until the krone replaced it in the 1892 monetary reform.
European