Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Quarter Farthing
Tiny copper coin of Queen Victoria worth one-sixteenth of a penny, struck for use in Ceylon; the smallest-value British denomination ever made.
British Isles
Victoria Maundy Twopence
A tiny sterling-silver ceremonial coin from a Royal Maundy set. This 1845 example shows Victoria's young head and a crowned 2 in a wreath.
British Isles
Victoria Maundy Fourpence
A tiny sterling-silver ceremonial coin from a royal Maundy set. This 1889 example shows Victoria's crowned Jubilee Head and a crowned '4' in a wreath.
British Isles
British Silver Threepence
Tiny sterling-silver threepence of Queen Victoria; the young-head type shown here dates to 1858 and is one of Britain's smallest circulating coins.
British Isles
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
Philip II Tetradrachm
A large silver coin of the Macedonian kingdom showing the laureate head of Zeus and a youthful horseman, struck under and after Philip II.
Ancient
Anglo-Saxon Styca
A tiny base-metal coin of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, struck in the 8th-9th century with a head and inscription on one side and a cross on the other.
Medieval Coins
Styca of Aethelred
Small base-metal coin of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, naming King Aethelred, with a central device and legend on one face and a cross on the other.
Medieval Coins
Macao Silver Coin (1974)
A 1974 Macau silver coin marking the Macau-Taipa Bridge: a spanning bridge with a Chinese junk below, ringed by REPUBLICA PORTUGUESA and PONTE MACAU-TAIPA.
Circulation
Warring States Knife Coin
A cast bronze knife coin (dao bi) of China's Warring States period, shaped like a small blade with a ringed handle and cast inscriptions.
Ancient
China Panda Gold Coin
A modern Chinese gold bullion coin with the Temple of Heaven on one side and a giant panda on the other; this 2016 issue is a 30-gram gold piece.
Bullion
Wang Mang Spade Money
A cast bronze spade-shaped coin of the Xin Dynasty, issued under the reformer Wang Mang, its flat blade bearing raised Chinese inscriptions.
Ancient
Chu State Ant-Nose Coin
A small cast bronze cowrie-shaped coin of the Chu state, bearing a face-like Chinese inscription in relief, nicknamed ant-nose or ghost-face money.
Ancient
Qi State Knife Coin
A cast bronze knife-shaped coin of the ancient state of Qi, with Chinese characters running down the curved blade and a ringed handle terminal.
Ancient
Hryvnia
Medieval silver money unit of Kievan Rus, circulating as cast silver ingots and weight-money rather than as a struck, portrait-bearing coin.
Medieval
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