Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
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
Licinius Follis
Bronze follis of Licinius, the last rival emperor to challenge Constantine the Great before his defeat and the reunification of the Roman Empire under Constantinian rule in 324 AD.
Ancient
Diocletian Follis
Large bronze follis of Diocletian, whose sweeping reforms ended the Crisis of the Third Century, established the Tetrarchy, and introduced this new standardized coin denomination in 294 AD.
Ancient
Vietnamese Tu Duc Thong Bao (cash coin)
A cast bronze or zinc cash coin issued under Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn Dynasty, round with a square center hole in the traditional East Asian style.
Asian
George VI Small Cent (Maple Twig)
Canada's bronze one-cent coin issued under King George VI, featuring two maple leaves on a twig, a design that helped modernize Canadian coinage in the late 1930s.
Canadian
Constantine the Great Follis
A bronze coin of Constantine the Great, the emperor who legalized Christianity and founded Constantinople, struck at numerous mints across a transforming empire.
Ancient
1944 Steel Cent
A rare Lincoln cent mistakenly struck on leftover steel planchets in 1944, the reverse counterpart to the famous 1943 bronze cent error.
Errors & Varieties
Galerius Follis
Reform-era bronze follis of Galerius, Caesar and later Augustus of the eastern Tetrarchy, remembered for early persecution of Christians and his later Edict of Toleration issued just before his death.
Ancient
Edward VII Large Cent
Canada's large bronze cent struck 1902-1910 under King Edward VII, continuing the pre-1920 large cent format.
Canadian
Chinese Spade Money (Bu Coin)
An early Chinese bronze currency shaped like a miniature farming spade, used across several competing Zhou-era states before round coinage became standardized.
Asian
Nero Sestertius
A large bronze/brass coin of Nero widely admired for exceptional artistry, including famous reverse scenes of the Port of Ostia and the closed Temple of Janus.
Ancient
1982 Copper/Zinc Transition Lincoln Cent
The single year the Lincoln cent's composition changed mid-year from 95% copper bronze to copper-plated zinc, producing seven recognized date, mint, and metal varieties.
Errors & Varieties
1944 Steel Lincoln Cent
A scarce transitional error in which a small number of 1944 cents were struck on leftover steel planchets after the Mint had already returned to bronze, the mirror-image counterpart to the famous 1943 copper cent.
Errors & Varieties
Constantine Sol Invictus Follis
A common bronze follis of Constantine the Great honoring Sol Invictus, the radiate sun god, struck empire-wide before his turn toward Christianity.
Ancient
Vespasian Judaea Capta Sestertius
A large bronze coin of Emperor Vespasian commemorating Rome's suppression of the Jewish Revolt, showing a mourning captive beneath a palm tree with the legend IVDAEA CAPTA.
Ancient
Byzantine Follis
The large bronze workhorse coin of everyday Byzantine commerce, reformed by Emperor Anastasius I in 498 AD with a prominent Greek numeral denoting its value of 40 nummi.
Ancient
Chinese Tang Dynasty Cash
The influential bronze cash coin introduced in the Tang Dynasty, inscribed "Kai Yuan Tong Bao," that established the round-with-square-hole design copied for over a thousand years.
Asian
Farthing
The smallest-value British bronze coin, worth a quarter of a penny, fondly remembered for its charming wren reverse design used from 1937 until its withdrawal.
British
Halfpenny
A small British bronze coin worth half a penny, best known in its twentieth-century form featuring Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind on the reverse.
British
Trajan Sestertius
A large bronze coin of Trajan, whose reign brought the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent, with reverses celebrating Dacian conquest, public works, and Trajan's Column.
Ancient
1864 L Indian Head Cent
A famous variety of the 1864 bronze Indian Head cent bearing a tiny L on Liberty's ribbon for designer James Longacre, one of the most recognized key varieties in the series.
United States
Copper-Nickel Indian Head Cent
The earliest Indian Head cents, struck in copper-nickel from 1859 to 1864 before the Mint switched to a thinner bronze alloy, nicknamed 'white cents' for their pale color.
United States
Chinese Song Dynasty Cash Coin
A round bronze coin with a square center hole issued during China's Song Dynasty, among the most massively produced and commonly collected pre-modern Chinese coin types.
Asian
New Zealand Penny (KGVI)
New Zealand bronze penny struck under King George VI, notable for its reverse featuring the native tuatara reptile, part of the country's distinctive 1933-launched coin series.
Africa & Oceania