Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Spanish 8 Reales Portrait Dollar
The globally trusted "Spanish dollar" bearing a king's portrait, minted across Spain's vast colonial empire and so widely circulated it directly inspired the U.S. dollar sign and denomination.
European
1916 Standing Liberty Quarter
The extremely low-mintage first-year issue of the Standing Liberty quarter, one of the most famous key dates in all of United States coinage.
United States
Constantius II Centenionalis
A bronze centenionalis of Constantius II featuring the dramatic 'Fallen Horseman' reverse, one of the most famous designs of the Late Roman Empire.
Ancient
1851 Silver Three-Cent Piece
The first-year issue of the tiny Type I silver three-cent piece, nicknamed the trime, created to ease a national shortage of small change and postage-stamp coinage.
United States
Flying Eagle Cent
The first small-size U.S. cent, introduced in 1856 to replace the large copper cent, featuring a flying eagle obverse designed by James B. Longacre.
United States
British Trade Dollar
A silver trade dollar struck by Britain to compete with the Mexican and Spanish dollars circulating across Hong Kong, China, and Southeast Asia.
Asian
Gothic Crown
An ornate Victorian silver crown featuring a young Queen Victoria in Gothic-script lettering, widely admired as one of the most artistically accomplished coins in British history.
British
Japanese 50 Sen Silver (Meiji Phoenix)
An early Meiji-era Japanese silver coin featuring a coiled dragon on the obverse and a phoenix on the reverse, part of Japan's first modern decimal coinage system introduced after the Meiji Restoration.
Asian
Japanese Meiji Gold 20 Yen
The largest and highest-denomination gold coin of Meiji-era Japan, featuring an imperial dragon design, struck to underpin Japan's modern gold-backed currency system.
Asian
Spanish Colonial 8 Reales Ferdinand VII
A large silver 8 reales coin struck across Spain's American colonies bearing the portrait of King Ferdinand VII, widely circulated internationally and historically linked to the origin of the US dollar sign.
World
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
Armorican Billon Stater
A debased silver-alloy stater struck by Celtic tribes of Armorica (modern Brittany), showing wildly abstracted horse and head designs derived from Greek prototypes.
Ancient
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
1805 Draped Bust Quarter
A far more available date than the famous 1804, the 1805 quarter is a popular representative of the Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle type for collectors building an early American type set.
United States
1858 Seated Liberty Quarter
A comparatively plentiful mid-series No Motto Seated Liberty quarter, popular as an affordable entry point for collectors seeking a representative example of the type.
United States
Vermont Copper
Copper coinage struck under authority of the independent Vermont Republic in the 1780s, featuring an early landscape design and later a Britannia-style type.
United States
Classic Head Half Cent
A half cent design used from 1809 to 1836, featuring a Liberty head with a headband inscribed LIBERTY, succeeding the Draped Bust type.
United States
1822 Capped Bust Dime
A scarce, low-mintage date within the Capped Bust dime series, considered a key date for collectors assembling this early 19th-century type.
United States
Thurium (Thurii) Athena and Bull Nomos
Silver nomos of the Greek colony of Thurii in southern Italy, showing a helmeted Athena obverse and a butting bull reverse, a classic Magna Graecia type.
Ancient
Mughal Silver Rupee (Akbar)
A silver rupee struck under Emperor Akbar, who standardized the denomination's weight and calligraphic design, establishing a coin type that shaped Indian currency for centuries.
Asian
1796 Draped Bust Quarter
The very first quarter dollar struck by the United States Mint, a one-year type coin with a tiny mintage that is treasured by collectors of early American silver.
United States
1891 Seated Liberty Quarter
The final year of the long-running Seated Liberty quarter design before it was replaced by the Barber quarter in 1892, popular as an affordable closing-date type coin.
United States
Mark Antony Legionary Denarius
A widely produced denarius struck by Mark Antony to pay his legions before the Battle of Actium, each type naming a specific Roman legion on the reverse.
Ancient
Capped Bust Half Dollar
A silver half dollar (1807-1839) designed by John Reich, showing Liberty in a cap and drapery, minted in large numbers and popular with type and variety collectors.
United States