Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Guangdong 20 Cents
A silver 20-cent coin of Kwangtung (Guangdong) province, struck under the Guangxu Emperor with a coiled dragon on one side and Chinese legends on the other.
Circulation
Barber Dime
U.S. ten-cent silver coin struck 1892–1916, showing a right-facing Liberty head and a wreath enclosing "ONE DIME" on the reverse.
Dime
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Half Dollar
A 1936 U.S. silver commemorative half dollar celebrating the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with a bridge span and a California grizzly bear.
Classic Commemorative
New Zealand Sixpence
New Zealand's small silver sixpence, famed for its native-bird reverse. This 1934 example shows King George V and the bird design with NEW ZEALAND SIXPENCE.
New Zealand
New Rochelle Half Dollar
A 1938 U.S. silver half dollar marking the 250th anniversary of New Rochelle, New York, with a Huguenot founder leading a fatted calf and a fleur-de-lis reverse.
Classic Commemorative
Dirham of Sistan
A silver Umayyad dirham struck at the Sijistan (Sistan) mint in AH 82 (701–702 CE), its faces filled with Kufic Arabic inscriptions ringed by concentric borders.
Islamic (Medieval)
Xuantong Yuanbao 20 Cents
A small late-Qing silver 20-cent coin with a Western-style dragon, the English legend FIRST YEAR OF HSUAN TUNG, and Chinese characters reading Xuantong Yuanbao.
Circulation
Follis of Galerius
A large silvered bronze follis of the emperor Galerius (Augustus AD 305-311), struck across the Tetrarchic mints with a laureate portrait and a standing deity reverse.
Ancient
Athenian Owl Tetradrachm
Broad silver 'New Style' tetradrachm of Athens (c. 165-42 BC): helmeted Athena on the front, owl on an amphora within an olive wreath on the back.
Ancient Coins
Denarius of Tiberius (Tribute Penny)
Silver denarius of Emperor Tiberius (14–37 AD), obverse his laureate head, reverse a seated female figure — the famous "Tribute Penny" of the Gospels.
Ancient
Brutus & Plaetorius Denarius
The silver EID MAR denarius: M. Junius Brutus on the obverse, a Phrygian cap between two daggers and EID MAR on the reverse, struck 42 BC.
Ancient
Joachimsthaler (Thaler)
A large early-16th-century Bohemian silver thaler from Joachimsthal, dated 1525; the coin whose name gave rise to the words 'thaler' and 'dollar'.
Early Modern
Hanover 2/3 Thaler
A large German States silver 2/3 Thaler of Brunswick-Luneburg (Hanover) dated 1694, with an ornate coat of arms and the leaping Saxon horse reverse.
German States
Frankfurt am Main Taler
A 1772 silver Taler of the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt am Main, famed for its detailed city-view reverse with walls, towers and radiant sun.
German States
Holey Dollar
Australia's first struck coin: a Spanish silver dollar with its centre punched out, counterstamped NEW SOUTH WALES 1813 and revalued at five shillings.
Australian
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
British Half Crown
British silver half crown of King George V, worth two shillings and sixpence, with the king's bare left-facing head and a crowned shield of arms.
British Isles
James VI Ryal
A large hammered silver Scottish ryal of James VI, showing a crowned lion-rampant shield and a mailed swordhand grasping an upright sword, dated 1569.
Hammered
Sixpence of Elizabeth I
A hammered silver sixpence of Elizabeth I, showing the crowned, ruff-collared queen in profile and the royal shield, most bearing a date beside a mint mark.
Hammered
Daniel Boone Bicentennial Half Dollar
A 90% silver U.S. classic commemorative struck 1934–1938 for Daniel Boone's bicentennial, showing his portrait and a frontier scene with Chief Black Fish.
Classic Commemorative
Columbia South Carolina Sesquicentennial Half Dollar
A 1936 U.S. silver half dollar marking 150 years of Columbia as South Carolina's capital; Justice with scales between two statehouses, palmetto reverse.
Classic Commemorative
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
Bank of England Dollar
A George III silver dollar issued by the Bank of England in 1804, struck over Spanish eight-reales coins, with a laureate bust and a crowned shield reverse.
Milled
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