Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Bolivian Boliviano Silver
Bolivia's national currency unit, the boliviano, was introduced in the 1860s as a substantial silver coin and remains the country's monetary unit in modern, non-silver form.
Latin American
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 Krugerrand
The world's first modern gold bullion coin for private investment, introduced in 1967 featuring President Paul Kruger and a springbok antelope, sparking the global gold-coin bullion market.
Bullion
Republican Victoriatus
A lighter-weight Roman Republican silver coin depicting Jupiter and a Victory crowning a trophy, used largely for trade with the Greek-influenced south.
Ancient
Rama IV Siamese Baht (first machine-struck)
Landmark Siamese silver coin introduced under King Mongkut (Rama IV), marking the country's shift from traditional bullet-shaped money to modern, flat, machine-struck coinage.
Asian
Royal Mint £5 Crown Commemorative
The modern British £5 coin descends from the historic crown and is issued almost exclusively for commemorative purposes, marking royal events, anniversaries, and national milestones.
Commemorative
American Gold Buffalo
The first 24-karat gold coin struck by the U.S. Mint, adapting James Earle Fraser's classic Buffalo Nickel design for a modern bullion product.
Bullion
Guatemala Quetzal Silver
Guatemala's modern national currency unit, named after the resplendent quetzal bird, introduced in the 1920s with a substantial silver coin marking the country's monetary modernization.
Latin American
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
Bluenose Ten Cents (dime)
Canada's iconic ten-cent coin featuring the famous racing and fishing schooner Bluenose, a design introduced in 1937 that remains in use on the modern dime today.
Canadian
St George Sovereign (Pistrucci)
The modern gold sovereign's iconic reverse showing St George slaying the dragon, engraved by Benedetto Pistrucci in 1817 and still used on British sovereigns to this day.
British
Kushan Gold Dinar
Gold coin of the Kushan Empire modeled on the Roman aureus standard, notable for depicting a rich blend of Greek, Iranian, Indian, and Buddhist deities on its reverse.
Ancient
2000-P Sacagawea Cheerios Dollar
A famous modern rarity: early-production 2000-P Sacagawea dollars included in Cheerios cereal boxes as a promotion, some showing enhanced eagle tail feather detail not found on later coins.
Errors & Varieties
Japanese Meiji Gold 20 Yen
The largest and highest-denomination gold coin of Meiji-era Japan, featuring an imperial dragon design, struck to underpin Japan's modern gold-backed currency system.
Asian
1987 Loon Dollar (Aureate)
Canada's first modern circulating dollar coin, introduced in 1987 to replace the paper dollar bill and nicknamed "the Loonie" after the common loon depicted on its reverse.
Canadian
Celtic Gold Stater of the Parisii
A gold stater struck by the Parisii, the Gallic tribe that gave its name to Paris, showing highly abstracted, stylized versions of Greek prototype designs.
Ancient
Kushan Gold Dinar of Kanishka
A gold dinar of the great Kushan emperor Kanishka I, famous for its rich mix of Greek, Iranian, Indian, and Buddhist deities depicted on the reverse.
Ancient
Australian Lunar Series (Perth Mint)
Modern Australian bullion and collector coin series from the Perth Mint featuring a different Chinese zodiac animal each year, popular worldwide with precious metal collectors.
Bullion
Western Satrap Silver Drachm
A silver drachm of the Western Satraps, Saka rulers of western India, easily identified by a crude Greek-style portrait obverse and a three-arched hill reverse.
Ancient
1975 No S Proof Roosevelt Dime
One of the rarest and most valuable modern US coin errors: a 1975 proof dime struck without its San Francisco 'S' mintmark, with only a handful of examples known.
Errors & Varieties
Two Pound Gold (Double Sovereign)
A gold coin worth two pounds sterling and roughly twice the weight of a sovereign, struck mainly for jubilees, coronations, and modern proof or bullion sets rather than daily circulation.
British
Byzantine Follis
The large bronze workhorse coin of everyday Byzantine commerce, reformed by Emperor Anastasius I in 498 AD with a prominent Greek numeral denoting its value of 40 nummi.
Ancient
Panormus Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm
A silver tetradrachm struck at Panormus under Carthaginian control in Sicily, blending Greek artistic style with Punic legends, a hallmark of the distinctive Siculo-Punic coinage series.
Ancient
Japanese 50 Sen Silver (Meiji Phoenix)
An early Meiji-era Japanese silver coin featuring a coiled dragon on the obverse and a phoenix on the reverse, part of Japan's first modern decimal coinage system introduced after the Meiji Restoration.
Asian