Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Royal Canadian Mint Colored Poppy Quarter (2004)
Canada's 2004 poppy quarter is widely credited as the world's first coin with a colored design produced for general circulation, honoring Canadian war remembrance with a red poppy at its center.
Commemorative
Australian Threepence (pre-decimal)
Small pre-decimal Australian silver coin worth three pence, popularly recognized for its bundled wheat-ear reverse design used across most of the 20th century.
Africa & Oceania
Chinese Kirin Province Dragon Dollar
A late Qing dynasty silver dollar from China's northeastern Kirin province, widely admired by collectors for the unusually artistic and finely detailed dragon design on several of its issues.
Asian
Chinese Yunnan Province Dragon Dollar
A silver dragon dollar struck by China's remote southwestern Yunnan province, notable for its distinctive coiled dragon design and unusually long production continuing well into the Republic era.
Asian
Standing Liberty Quarter
An early 20th-century silver quarter featuring a striding figure of Liberty, prized for its artistic Type I 'bare breast' design and later modified Type II version.
United States
Coronet Head Half Eagle
The longest-running half eagle design, struck for nearly seventy years with Christian Gobrecht's Liberty coronet portrait, spanning No Motto and With Motto varieties across six different mints.
United States
New Jersey Copper
State-authorized copper coinage struck for New Jersey in the late 1780s, famous for its horse-head-and-plow obverse and shield reverse design.
United States
British Silver Britannia
The Royal Mint's one-ounce silver bullion coin, launched in 1997 as a silver companion to the Gold Britannia, featuring the same classical Britannia design.
Bullion
Chinese Empire Silver Dollar (Hsuan Tung Dragon)
A late Qing dynasty silver dollar issued during the brief Hsuan Tung (Xuantong) reign of the last emperor, featuring an imperial dragon design.
Asian
Lincoln Shield Cent
The current Lincoln cent reverse, introduced in 2010, depicts a Union shield replacing the earlier Lincoln Memorial design as the fourth reverse in the cent's history.
United States
Vienna Philharmonic
Austria's celebrated bullion coin family built around a shared musical design honoring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, issued in gold, silver, and platinum.
Bullion
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
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
New Zealand Mint Silver Kiwi
A popular silver bullion coin from the New Zealand Mint depicting the flightless kiwi bird, with a design refreshed most years since its debut.
Bullion
American Gold Buffalo
The first 24-karat gold coin struck by the U.S. Mint, adapting James Earle Fraser's classic Buffalo Nickel design for a modern bullion product.
Bullion
Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf
The Royal Canadian Mint's platinum bullion coin, launched in 1988 with the same maple leaf design used across Canada's precious metal coin lines.
Bullion
Brazilian 2000 Reis Silver
The largest common silver coin of the Brazilian Empire, bearing the portrait of Emperor Pedro II across several design types spanning his long reign.
Latin American
Chinese Pei Yang (Peiyang) Arsenal Dragon Dollar
Late Qing dynasty silver dollar struck at the Pei Yang Arsenal in Tientsin, prized by collectors for its dragon design and the rarity of certain dated varieties.
Asian
Ceylon (Sri Lanka) EIC Rixdollar
A colonial currency unit continued by the British East India Company administration in Ceylon, inherited from earlier Dutch VOC rule and featuring an elephant design.
Asian
Bluenose Ten Cents (dime)
Canada's iconic ten-cent coin featuring the famous racing and fishing schooner Bluenose, a design introduced in 1937 that remains in use on the modern dime today.
Canadian
Braided Hair Large Cent
The final large cent design, showing Liberty with braided hair, produced until the bulky copper cent was replaced by the small Flying Eagle cent in 1857.
United States
Indian Punch-Marked Karshapana
Among the earliest coins of South Asia, irregular silver bars struck repeatedly with multiple unrelated symbol punches rather than a single unified design.
Ancient
Maximian Follis
Large bronze follis of Maximian, co-Augustus with Diocletian who ruled the western half of the empire as part of the Tetrarchy and shared the same reformed coinage design.
Ancient
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful U.S. coins ever produced, designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt.
United States