Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
1942/1 Mercury Dime Overdate
A famous overdate error, this Philadelphia Mercury Dime shows remnants of a 1941 digit beneath the 1942 date, created when an old die hub was reused by mistake.
Errors & Varieties
Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle ($2.50)
A small early 20th-century $2.50 gold coin notable for its incuse design and Native American war bonnet portrait, designed by sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt.
United States
Peru 1 Sol Silver 'Seated Liberty'
A classic Peruvian silver coin showing a seated female Liberty figure holding a shield and staff, struck intermittently over several decades at the Lima mint.
Latin American
Type 1 Liberty Head Gold Dollar
The first United States gold dollar, a tiny coin introduced during the California Gold Rush and among the smallest coins ever struck by the U.S. Mint.
United States
Canadian Gold Maple Leaf (1 oz)
Canada's flagship gold bullion coin, struck in .9999 fine gold by the Royal Canadian Mint since 1979, among the purest gold coins ever issued.
Bullion
1888/7 Indian Head Cent Overdate
A scarce overdate variety of the Indian Head cent in which traces of an underlying 7 are visible beneath the final 8 in the 1888 date, from a working die repunched with a new year.
Errors & Varieties
Type 3 Indian Princess Gold Dollar
The final and longest-running design of the U.S. gold dollar, featuring a larger, better-struck Native American princess portrait than its short-lived Type 2 predecessor.
United States
1860 Indian Head Cent (Oak Wreath)
The redesigned Indian Head cent introducing the oak wreath and shield reverse that would remain in use, with only a metal change in 1864, through the end of the series in 1909.
United States
1942/1-D Mercury Dime Overdate
The Denver counterpart to the famous 1942/1 overdate, this Mercury Dime shows a doubled date from reused 1941 die-making equipment and is scarcer than the Philadelphia version.
Errors & Varieties
Mexican Estados Unidos 1 Peso 'Morelos'
A mid-twentieth-century Mexican silver peso portraying independence hero José María Morelos, struck in fifty-percent silver for just a few years after World War II.
Latin American
1917 Type 1 Standing Liberty Quarter
The original 1916-1917 Standing Liberty quarter design showing Liberty with an exposed right breast, before the design was modified later in 1917 for modesty.
United States
Japanese 1 Yen Silver 'Dragon' Trade Dollar
A Meiji-era Japanese silver yen featuring a coiled dragon, struck to standardize Japan's currency and, in a special trade dollar variant, to compete with Mexican and other silver dollars across East Asia.
Asian
1873 Open 3 vs Closed 3 Indian Head Cent
Two distinct date logotype varieties of the 1873 Indian Head cent, distinguished by whether the top loop of the final 3 in the date is nearly closed or clearly open.
Errors & Varieties
Korean 1 Yang Silver (Joseon/Great Han Empire)
Silver 1 Yang coin from Korea's late Joseon currency reform of the 1890s, part of the kingdom's first modern, machine-struck decimal coinage.
Asian
Sun Yat-sen 'Memento' 1 Dollar (1927)
Silver dollar bearing the portrait of Sun Yat-sen, struck to commemorate the founding of the Republic of China and widely circulated under the Nationalist government.
Asian
Pound Coin
The United Kingdom's £1 coin, introduced in 1983 to replace the paper pound note, redesigned as a 12-sided bimetallic coin in 2017.
British
Iranian Pahlavi Gold Coin
A gold coin series named for Iran's Pahlavi dynasty, issued from the 1920s until the 1979 revolution and still widely traded today as a recognized gold bullion and savings coin.
Bullion
2 Euro Coin
The highest-denomination circulating euro coin, with a silver-colored center inside a gold-colored ring, widely used by member states to issue popular commemorative designs collected across Europe.
European
Two Pound Coin
The UK's bimetallic £2 coin, standardized for circulation in the late 1990s, widely used for a rotating series of commemorative reverse designs.
British
Vatican Euro Coins
Official euro coinage of the world's smallest sovereign state, struck in very limited quantities and highly sought after by euro coin collectors worldwide.
European
Somalia Elephant Silver Coin
A popular annually-redesigned bullion coin issued in the name of Somalia depicting an African elephant, part of a broader African Wildlife series struck by a German mint.
Africa & Oceania
Guptas 'Horseman' Silver Coin
Silver coin of the Gupta Empire showing the king on horseback, struck after Gupta conquest of western India in imitation of earlier Western Kshatrapa silver coinage.
Ancient
Aksumite Gold Coin of Ezana
Gold coin of King Ezana of Aksum, historically important as among the earliest coins in the world to bear a Christian cross, marking Ezana's conversion.
Ancient
50 Euro Cent Coin
A gold-colored circulating euro coin worth half a euro, struck in a copper-based Nordic gold alloy and easily recognized by its distinctive scalloped-edge shape and national obverse design.
European