Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Capped Bust Eagle
The first United States gold ten-dollar coin, struck 1795–1804 with a capped Liberty bust and, in later years, a heraldic eagle bearing a shield and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
United States
Lincoln Bicentennial Cent
A 2009 U.S. one-cent coin marking Lincoln's 200th birthday, keeping his classic profile while replacing the usual reverse with four scenes from his life.
Small Cent
Bank of England Dollar
A George III silver dollar issued by the Bank of England in 1804, struck over Spanish eight-reales coins, with a laureate bust and a crowned shield reverse.
Milled
Clark & Co Territorial Gold Half Eagle
An 1860 privately struck $5 gold piece from Clark, Gruber & Co. of Denver, coined from Pikes Peak gold during the Colorado gold rush.
Half Eagle
Lincoln Wheat Cent
U.S. one-cent coin struck 1909–1958 with Lincoln's profile and a pair of wheat ears framing ONE CENT; the 1909-S here is a scarce first-year San Francisco issue.
Small Cent
Denarius of Cassius Longinus
Silver denarius struck in 42 BC by Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar's assassins, to pay his legions before the Battle of Philippi.
Ancient
100 Soles de Oro
Peru's largest gold Sol de Oro—a heavy .900 gold coin of the Lima Mint. This reverse-only 1965 example shows a fortress emblem and CASA DE MONEDA DE LIMA.
Circulation
Una and the Lion Five Pounds
William Wyon's 1839 gold Five Pounds pairs a young Queen Victoria with Una guiding a lion — widely praised as one of the most beautiful British coins ever struck.
British Isles
East India Company Quarter Anna
Large copper 1/4 anna of the East India Company dated 1835, with a heraldic lion-and-shield obverse and a laurel-wreath reverse.
British India
Groat of Henry VIII
A hand-struck Tudor silver groat (fourpence) of Henry VIII, showing the quartered royal arms within a circle and a long cross reverse.
Hammered
Edward I Penny
Hammered silver penny of Edward I, showing a crowned facing bust on the obverse and a long voided cross with pellets in the quadrants on the reverse.
Medieval Coins
Shilling of George III
A milled silver shilling of George III from the Great Recoinage, with his laureate bust facing right and a crowned quartered royal shield within the Garter.
Milled
Irish Gun Money Shilling
A base-metal Irish emergency shilling struck for James II in 1689-1690, with his laureate bust and a crowned reverse dated by month, here October 1689.
Emergency Coinage
Marinid Gold Dinar
Aniconic Islamic gold dinar of the Marinid dynasty of Morocco, its faces filled with Arabic religious inscriptions framed by geometric border bands.
Medieval Islamic
Dirham of Sistan
A silver Umayyad dirham struck at the Sijistan (Sistan) mint in AH 82 (701–702 CE), its faces filled with Kufic Arabic inscriptions ringed by concentric borders.
Islamic (Medieval)
Mughal Islamic Rupee
A hand-struck silver rupee of the Mughal Empire, filled edge to edge with Persian and Arabic script naming the emperor, mint, and regnal year.
Islamic
Dirham of al-Mahdi
A silver Abbasid dirham struck under Caliph al-Mahdi in AH 166 (783 CE), its faces filled with linear Kufic Arabic legends declaring the Islamic faith.
Islamic (Medieval)
Gold Dinar of Ahmad ibn Tulun
A late-9th-century Islamic gold dinar of the Tulunid ruler Ahmad ibn Tulun, its faces filled with concentric Arabic inscriptions and dated AH 268 (881–882 CE).
Islamic (Medieval)
Penny of Cynethryth
Anglo-Saxon silver penny of Cynethryth, queen of Mercia and wife of Offa, and the only Anglo-Saxon queen named on her own coinage.
Medieval Coins
Irish Groat of Henry VIII
A hand-hammered silver fourpence struck for Ireland under Henry VIII, famed for introducing the crowned harp to Irish coinage.
Hammered
Thebes Stater
Silver stater of Thebes with the Boeotian shield and a bearded head of Dionysos, struck as federal coinage of the Boeotian League, c. 395-338 BC.
Ancient
Alexander the Great Gold Quarter Stater
A small gold fraction of the Alexander the Great coinage, showing the head of Heracles and an eagle perched on a thunderbolt, the attributes of Zeus.
Ancient
20 Soles de Oro
A Peruvian gold 20 soles de oro showing a seated Liberty with crown, torch and radiant sun, part of Peru's mid-20th-century gold coinage.
Circulation
Antoninianus of Caracalla
The antoninianus introduced by Caracalla around AD 215, a radiate-crowned double denarius in debased silver that reshaped Roman coinage.
Ancient