Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
1916 Walking Liberty Half Dollar
First-year strike of Adolph Weinman's celebrated Walking Liberty design, prized by collectors for its beauty and for the obverse mintmark unique to 1916 and early 1917.
United States
Native American Dollar (Sacagawea Reverse Series)
A continuation of the Sacagawea dollar with an annually changing reverse honoring Native American history and culture, while keeping Sacagawea's portrait on the obverse.
United States
Classic Head Quarter Eagle
Struck from 1834 to 1839 after Congress reduced the gold weight of U.S. coins, this quarter eagle dropped the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM and features a simplified Liberty head.
United States
American Silver Eagle
The official one-ounce silver bullion coin of the United States, first struck in 1986, pairing Adolph Weinman's Walking Liberty design with a modern heraldic eagle.
Bullion
US Olympic Commemorative Dollar (1983)
The first coin in a two-year US commemorative program supporting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the 1983 silver dollar features a discus-thrower design and marked a revival of American commemorative coinage.
Commemorative
1939-S Jefferson Nickel
A scarce San Francisco Jefferson Nickel from the early series, notable for being one of two tougher 1939 issues and for a well-known doubled-die reverse variety showing a doubled MONTICELLO.
United States
1933 Double Eagle
One of the rarest and most legally contested U.S. coins, struck but never officially released for circulation after the nation left the gold standard; a single example sold for over $18 million.
United States
1873-CC Seated Liberty Quarter (No Arrows)
One of the great rarities of the Seated Liberty quarter series, this tiny Carson City issue predates the mid-1873 arrows-at-date modification and survives in only a handful of known examples.
United States
Liberty Head Half Eagle ($5)
A widely produced 19th-century gold five-dollar coin bearing Christian Gobrecht's Coronet Head design, struck across nearly every major American branch mint of the era.
United States
Louisiana Purchase Gold Dollar Commemorative
A 1903 commemorative gold dollar issued for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, struck in two varieties featuring the portraits of Thomas Jefferson and William McKinley.
Commemorative
Type 2 Indian Princess Gold Dollar
A short-lived, notoriously weakly struck redesign of the U.S. gold dollar, prized today for its brief production window and the striking difficulties that led to its quick replacement.
United States
Chinese Knife Money (Ming Dao)
An ancient Chinese bronze currency cast in the shape of a knife, bearing a character often read as "Ming" on its blade, used mainly by the northern state of Yan before round coinage prevailed.
Asian
Penny
One of the oldest and most iconic British denominations, the pre-decimal penny is famous for its large bronze Britannia design and beloved key dates like the 1933 penny.
British
Armenian Silver Noah's Ark
A biblically themed silver bullion coin issued by the Central Bank of Armenia, referencing Mount Ararat's traditional association with Noah's Ark.
World
Chilean 50 Pesos Gold
A mid-sized Chilean gold coin issued as part of the 1926 gold standard reform, sharing the condor design theme with its larger and smaller companion denominations.
Latin American
Austrian 20 Corona Gold
A compact gold coin of the Austro-Hungarian Empire depicting Emperor Franz Joseph I, widely available today as an accessible historic gold piece.
European
Netherlands East Indies VOC Duit
Copper coin struck by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for circulation in its Asian trading territories, a common relic of 18th-century colonial commerce.
Asian
Constantius I Chlorus Follis
Reform-era bronze follis of Constantius I Chlorus, Caesar and later Augustus of the western Tetrarchy, remembered chiefly as the father of Constantine the Great.
Ancient
Byzantine Gold Solidus
The gold standard coin of the Byzantine Empire for over 700 years, prized in medieval trade as far away as India and Scandinavia under the nickname "bezant."
Ancient
Austrian Silver Philharmonic
Austria's modern one-ounce silver bullion coin, launched in 2008 as a companion to the long-running gold Philharmonic, featuring the instruments of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bullion
Ancient British Gold Stater (Cunobelin)
A gold stater of Cunobelin, the powerful pre-Roman British king later immortalized by Shakespeare as Cymbeline, notable for its ear-of-corn and horse reverse types.
Ancient
Spanish Gold Escudo (Doubloon)
The gold denomination of the Spanish Empire, whose larger multiples became famous as "doubloons," struck both in Spain and across its American colonial mints for centuries.
European
1943-P/D Jefferson Nickel Doubled Mintmark
A wartime Jefferson nickel variety showing evidence of a doubled or repunched mint mark, with traces suggesting a D was punched before being corrected to a P, or vice versa, above Monticello on the reverse.
Errors & Varieties
Farthing
The smallest-value British bronze coin, worth a quarter of a penny, fondly remembered for its charming wren reverse design used from 1937 until its withdrawal.
British