Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
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
South African Mandela R5 Coin
South African circulating commemorative five-rand coin honoring Nelson Mandela, first issued for his 90th birthday in 2008 and again for his birth centenary in 2018.
Commemorative
Polish-Lithuanian Thaler
The large silver trade coin of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, struck under successive kings from the 16th through 18th centuries, bearing royal portraits paired with the combined Polish eagle and Lithuanian Vytis arms.
European
Capped Bust Quarter Eagle
An umbrella term for the earliest U.S. $2.50 gold coins (1796-1834), whose Liberty-in-a-cap portrait evolved through several sub-types, including the famous single-year 1808 issue.
United States
Broad
A gold twenty-shilling coin nicknamed the 'Broad' for its wide, thin flan, struck under the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell and continued briefly into the early reign of Charles II.
British
Massachusetts Cent (1787-1788)
State-issued copper coinage struck by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1787 and 1788, notable as the first official U.S. coinage to use the denomination 'cent'.
United States
1891 Seated Liberty Quarter
The final year of the long-running Seated Liberty quarter design before it was replaced by the Barber quarter in 1892, popular as an affordable closing-date type coin.
United States
1849 Double Eagle
A unique pattern coin, the very first double eagle ever struck by the U.S. Mint, made to test the newly authorized twenty-dollar denomination; the sole surviving example is held by the Smithsonian.
United States
Presidential Dollar - George Washington
The first coin in the U.S. Presidential Dollar series, honoring George Washington, notable for edge-lettering errors including the famous 'Godless Dollar' missing IN GOD WE TRUST.
United States
Liberty Head Double Eagle
A large gold twenty-dollar coin featuring Liberty's coronet-crowned head, struck for decades amid the California Gold Rush and westward mint expansion.
United States
Presidential Dollar - John Adams
The second coin in the U.S. Presidential Dollar series, honoring John Adams, also affected by a notable doubled and missing edge-lettering error alongside the Washington issue.
United States
Presidential Dollar - Abraham Lincoln
A Presidential Dollar honoring Abraham Lincoln, released in 2010 during the bicentennial period of his birth, featuring his portrait and the series' distinctive incused edge lettering.
United States
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
Kellogg & Co. Gold Piece
Private gold coinage struck by the San Francisco firm Kellogg & Co. during the California Gold Rush, including the famous octagonal fifty-dollar 'slug' of 1855, filling a shortage of circulating coin.
United States
1933 Double Eagle
One of the rarest and most legally contested U.S. coins, struck but never officially released for circulation after the nation left the gold standard; a single example sold for over $18 million.
United States
1827 Capped Bust Quarter
One of the most celebrated rarities in American numismatics, the 1827 quarter exists only as extremely rare proof-like Originals and later Restrikes rather than typical circulation coinage.
United States
Chinese Qing Dynasty Cash (Qian Long Tong Bao)
A brass cash coin issued during the long, prosperous reign of the Qianlong Emperor, one of the most commonly encountered Qing Dynasty coins in collections today.
Asian
1907 High Relief Double Eagle
Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens' original, dramatically high-relief double eagle design, struck in limited numbers in 1907 before being flattened for mass production; widely called America's most beautiful coin.
United States
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful U.S. coins ever produced, designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt.
United States
Lincoln Memorial Cent
The long-running Lincoln cent reverse featuring the Lincoln Memorial, used for half a century and one of the most commonly encountered coins in American pockets and collections.
United States
Egyptian 10 Piastres (silver)
A workhorse silver coin of Khedival, Sultanate, and Kingdom-era Egypt, one-tenth of a pound and commonly found in worn circulated grades from decades of daily use.
Africa & Oceania
Sassanian Drachm of Khusro II
A silver coin of the long-reigning Sasanian king Khusro II, among the most commonly found ancient Persian coins, showing his ornate crowned bust and a Zoroastrian fire altar.
Ancient
Persian Kran (Qajar silver)
The standard silver coin of Qajar Persia, worth one-tenth of a gold toman, widely struck under Naser al-Din Shah and later rulers and commonly seen with the lion-and-sun emblem.
Asian
1970-S Small Date Lincoln Cent
A scarcer date-size variety of the 1970-S Lincoln cent featuring a smaller, lower-positioned 7 in the date compared to the more common large date variety struck the same year.
Errors & Varieties