Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Roman Republic Denarius
The workhorse silver coin of the Roman Republic, introduced during the Second Punic War and struck by a long line of moneyers with ever-changing, often political, designs.
Ancient
Gallienus Antoninianus
Radiate coin of Gallienus, who ruled through the depths of the Crisis of the Third Century and is especially known for a colorful late-reign series of animal and mythological reverse types.
Ancient
Severus Alexander Denarius
Silver denarius of the teenage emperor Severus Alexander, last ruler of the Severan dynasty, whose reign closed with growing military unrest before his murder in 235 AD.
Ancient
Lampsakos Electrum Stater
An electrum stater from Lampsakos on the Hellespont, another important early precious-metal trade coinage of Asia Minor, often featuring a winged horse or janiform head.
Ancient
Ptolemy I Soter Tetradrachm
A silver tetradrachm bearing the realistic portrait of Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, whose eagle-on-thunderbolt reverse became the enduring badge of Ptolemaic coinage.
Ancient
1972 Eisenhower Dollar (Type 2)
A scarce reverse variety of the 1972 Eisenhower dollar, distinguished by a more detailed, higher-relief rendering of the Earth behind the moon-landing eagle, and prized by variety collectors.
Errors & Varieties
Presidential Dollar - Thomas Jefferson
The third coin in the Presidential Dollar series, honoring Thomas Jefferson, sharing the same edge-lettering format and Statue of Liberty reverse as the earliest issues in the program.
United States
GSA Morgan Dollar
Morgan silver dollars, mostly from Carson City, sold by the U.S. General Services Administration in the 1970s in distinctive hard plastic holders with a black or brown outer box.
United States
Vienna Philharmonic
Austria's celebrated bullion coin family built around a shared musical design honoring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, issued in gold, silver, and platinum.
Bullion
British Gold Guinea
Struck from 1663 to 1814 and named for the West African gold used in its earliest issues, the guinea was Britain's leading gold coin and gave its name to a unit of value still referenced today.
British
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
Kai Yuan Tong Bao Cash
A landmark Tang dynasty cash coin whose four-character reign-title inscription became the standard template for Chinese, and much of East Asian, coinage for the next 1,300 years.
Ancient
Five Pound Gold (Quintuple Sovereign)
The largest standard gold coin in the British sovereign family, worth five pounds and equal to five sovereigns, struck intermittently since 1820 for commemorative and collector purposes.
British
Double Sovereign
A British gold coin worth two pounds, twice the value of the standard sovereign, struck intermittently since the nineteenth century for commemorative and bullion purposes.
British
Angel
An English gold coin depicting the Archangel Michael slaying a dragon, introduced in 1465 and famously used as a ceremonial 'touch piece' in royal healing rituals.
British
Half Crown
A long-lived British coin worth one-eighth of a pound, struck from the Tudor era until decimalisation in 1970, valued today mainly for its portraits and design variety.
British
Florin (Two Shillings)
A British silver coin worth two shillings, notable for the controversial 1849 'Godless Florin' that omitted the customary religious motto, and for foreshadowing decimal coinage.
British
Half Crown Gold
A small gold coin worth half a gold crown, struck from the reign of Henry VIII through the English Civil War, distinct from the far more familiar silver half crown that circulated for centuries afterward.
British
Ayyubid Dinar of Saladin
A gold dinar struck under Salah al-Din (Saladin), founder of the Ayyubid dynasty famed for recapturing Jerusalem, continuing the Islamic tradition of purely inscriptional coinage.
World
Abbasid Gold Dinar
The standard gold coin of the Abbasid Caliphate centered on Baghdad, inscribed entirely in Arabic script and struck for roughly five centuries across a vast Islamic empire.
World
Byzantine Gold Semissis
A scarce half-value gold fraction of the Byzantine solidus, struck in smaller numbers than the tremissis and often associated with ceremonial or donative purposes.
Ancient
Testoon
The earliest English coin to carry a realistic royal portrait, introduced under Henry VII around 1487 as the forerunner of the shilling, later continued and debased under Henry VIII.
British
Maundy Twopence
A small silver twopence struck each year as part of the Royal Maundy set, historically descended from the medieval silver half groat and still distributed in the annual royal alms ceremony.
British
Two Guinea (Double Guinea)
A substantial gold coin worth two guineas, struck intermittently from the reign of Charles II through George II as part of England and Great Britain's early guinea coinage system.
British