Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Celtic Gold Quarter Stater
A small Iron Age gold coin struck by the Celtic peoples of ancient Britain, valued at one-quarter of a full stater and marked by abstract, geometric designs.
Ancient
1 Penni
Finland's smallest post-1963 coin: a tiny light base-metal piece with a bold numeral 1 and SUOMI on the front and a geometric line pattern on the back.
World
Gold Chervonets
Soviet gold coin of 1923 worth one chervonets (10 rubles), showing a peasant sowing before a rising sun and factories, with the Soviet state emblem.
World
20 Francs (Leopold II)
Belgium's gold 20 francs under King Leopold II, a small Latin Monetary Union coin with the bearded king's profile and the crowned national arms.
Modern
Spanish Colonial 1 Real (Bourbon)
A small silver coin of Spain's American colonies from the early Bourbon era, showing a cross with ornaments on one side and the crowned royal arms on the other.
Colonial
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
200 CFA Francs
A modern West African CFA coin worth 200 francs, showing a bold '200 FCFA' with decorative border on one face and a crossed emblem on the other.
World
Canadian Silver Maple Leaf
Canada's flagship 1 oz silver bullion coin, struck in .9999 fine silver by the Royal Canadian Mint with a single sugar-maple leaf design.
Bullion
Cambodia One Franc
A mid-20th-century one-franc coin of the Kingdom of Cambodia, its obverse bearing a royal Norodom profile and its reverse a heraldic coat of arms.
Southeast Asia
Australian Threepence
Australia's small pre-decimal silver threepence (3d), the country's tiniest coin, struck 1910-1964. The example shown carries a George V portrait.
Australian
Three Cent Nickel
A small copper-nickel three-cent coin with a Liberty head obverse and a Roman numeral III inside a wreath; struck at Philadelphia from 1865 to 1889.
Three Cent
Macao 1 Pataca
A silver-colored 1 Pataca circulation coin of Macao dated 2007, showing Chinese characters and denomination on one face and a lighthouse-and-harbor scene on the other.
Circulation
Ho-Nan 100 Cash
A large struck bronze 100-cash coin of Henan Province from Republican China, with ornate Chinese characters on one face and a decorative pattern on the other.
Cash Coin
1 Bu Gin
A small rectangular Japanese silver coin, the ichibu gin, worth one bu (a quarter ryo), bearing beaded borders, paulownia crests and Ginza inscriptions.
Historic
Guangxu Yuanbao 1 Mace 4.4 Candareens
A small silver dragon coin of Qing China from the Guangxu era, its face reading 1 Mace 4.4 Candareens and its back showing a coiled Chinese dragon.
Circulation
Antoninianus
Roman imperial coin of the crisis era, marked by a radiate (spiked) crown on the emperor's head; struck in debased silver-and-copper billon, c. 250-270 AD.
Ancient Coins
Maundy Three Pence
A tiny sterling-silver threepence tied to Britain's Royal Maundy tradition; the photographed 1687 coin shows James II's bust and a crowned Roman numeral III.
Maundy
British Third Farthing
A tiny 1844 Victoria copper coin: young left-facing queen's bust obverse, crowned value reverse. One of Britain's smallest denominations, struck for Malta.
Circulation
Aureus of Augustus
Roman imperial gold coin bearing the bare head of Augustus, first emperor of Rome, struck during his reign from 27 BC to 14 AD.
Ancient Coins
British East Africa Half Shilling
A small low-fineness silver coin of British East Africa bearing King George VI; the half shilling equalled fifty cents in the East African system.
World
Gold Dinar of Alp Arslan
A hand-struck Islamic gold coin of the Great Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan, covered in concentric Arabic inscriptions naming the ruler and caliph, AH 455–465.
Islamic
Wu Zhu Cash
A round Han-dynasty bronze cash coin with a central square hole and two seal-script characters, Wu Zhu, naming its weight of five zhu.
Cash Coin
Qian Feng Quan Bao
A round bronze Tang cash coin with a square center hole, cast under Emperor Gaozong in the short-lived Qianfeng era and worth ten ordinary cash.
Cash Coin
Fugio Cent
1787 copper cent, among the first coins issued under the United States, with a sundial and sun on the obverse and thirteen linked rings on the reverse.
Colonial