Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Mexican 8 Reales Pillar Dollar
Minted in colonial Mexico City from 1732 to the early 1770s, the pillar dollar's crowned globes and Pillars of Hercules design made it one of the most widely trusted silver trade coins in the world.
Latin American
Saxony Thaler
Saxony was one of the earliest and most prolific issuers of thalers, with the electorate and later kingdom producing large silver coins from the 16th century until German unification.
European
Penny
One of the oldest and most iconic British denominations, the pre-decimal penny is famous for its large bronze Britannia design and beloved key dates like the 1933 penny.
British
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
Half Farthing
A tiny copper coin worth one-eighth of a penny, struck mainly for use in colonial Ceylon during the reigns of George IV, William IV, and Victoria.
British
Bavaria Thaler
The historic large silver coin of Bavaria, struck across centuries by its electors and kings, capturing the state's political and artistic history until Germany's currency unification in the 1870s.
European
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
Maundy Penny
The smallest coin of the four-piece Royal Maundy set, a tiny silver penny given by the British monarch in an ancient Holy Thursday alms ceremony, minted every year in very limited numbers.
British
Decimal New Penny
The UK's smallest decimal coin, introduced on Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, inscribed "NEW PENNY" until 1982.
British
Quarter Farthing
The smallest fractional denomination in British coinage, worth one-sixteenth of a penny, struck primarily for use in colonial Ceylon during Victoria's reign.
British
Visigothic Gold Tremissis
Small gold coin of the Visigothic kings of Spain, evolving from crude imitations of Roman/Byzantine coinage into the first distinctly national royal coinage of post-Roman Western Europe.
European
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
Argentina 8 Reales
Silver 8 reales struck after Argentina's 1810 independence movement, replacing the Spanish king's portrait with the revolutionary Sun of May and clasped hands design.
Latin American
Half Guinea
Smaller companion gold coin to the guinea, worth half its value, struck across the same reigns from Charles II through George III for mid-value transactions.
British
Australian Holey Dollar and Dump
In 1813, colonial authorities in New South Wales punched the centers out of Spanish silver dollars to create two coins from one, easing a severe coin shortage while preventing the silver from leaving the colony.
Africa & Oceania
Siamese Rama V Silver Baht
Western-style silver baht introduced under King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam, replacing centuries-old bullet money with modern flat coinage.
Asian
George V Twenty-Five Cents (silver)
Canada's silver twenty-five-cent coin struck under King George V, a series notable for its famous 1921 key date and a rare 1936 emergency dot variety.
Canadian
George V Five Cents (silver)
The last era of Canadian silver five-cent coins, struck under King George V until nickel replaced silver in 1922, including the legendary rarity of the 1921 date.
Canadian
Twenty Pence
A seven-sided UK coin introduced in 1982 to fill a gap between the ten pence and fifty pence denominations.
British
George V Large Cent
Canada's final large-format bronze cent, struck 1911-1920 under King George V, including the controversial 1911 "Godless" issue.
Canadian
Virginia Halfpenny
An official royal copper coinage struck in London specifically for the Colony of Virginia, showing King George III, whose distribution was disrupted by the approaching American Revolution.
United States
George V Fifty Cents
Canada's fifty-cent silver coin issued under King George V, spanning a reduction in silver fineness in 1920 and including the famously rare 1921 date.
Canadian
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