Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
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
Mexican Gold Centenario (50 Pesos)
Mexico's iconic gold coin, first struck in 1921 to mark a century of independence, depicting the Angel of Independence and still produced today as bullion.
Bullion
Type 3 Indian Princess Gold Dollar
The final and longest-running design of the U.S. gold dollar, featuring a larger, better-struck Native American princess portrait than its short-lived Type 2 predecessor.
United States
Laurel
A gold twenty-shilling coin issued from 1619, named for its laureate royal portrait styled after Roman emperors, replacing the earlier Unite as James I's principal gold denomination.
British
Byzantine Gold Histamenon Nomisma
A distinctive concave (cup-shaped) Byzantine gold coin introduced in the 10th century as the full-weight companion to the flat tetarteron nomisma.
Ancient
Spanish 20 Pesetas Gold (Alfonso XII)
Spain's standard gold coin of the Latin Monetary Union era, struck under King Alfonso XII following the restoration of the Spanish monarchy in the 1870s.
European
India Gold Pagoda (Madras Presidency)
Small gold coin traditionally used across South India, later adopted and standardized by the East India Company's Madras Presidency before being phased out for rupee-based currency.
Asian
Louisiana Purchase Gold Dollar Commemorative
A 1903 commemorative gold dollar issued for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, struck in two varieties featuring the portraits of Thomas Jefferson and William McKinley.
Commemorative
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
Australian Gold Sovereign (Sydney Mint)
Gold sovereign struck at the Sydney Mint, Australia's first branch mint, opened to coin gold from the New South Wales gold rushes into imperial currency.
Africa & Oceania
Netherlands 10 Gulden Gold (Wilhelmina)
The gold 10 Gulden coin featuring Queen Wilhelmina was the Netherlands' standard gold circulation and reserve coin in the early 20th century, later restruck as a recognized gold bullion piece.
European
Italian 20 Lire Gold (Vittorio Emanuele)
The Kingdom of Italy's standard 20 lire gold coin, issued under kings including Vittorio Emanuele II, sharing the Latin Monetary Union's gold specifications with coins like the French Napoleon.
European
Lewis and Clark Gold Dollar Commemorative
A commemorative gold dollar honoring explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, struck in 1904 and 1905 for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon.
Commemorative
Terina Nike Nomos
A silver nomos from the South Italian city of Terina, celebrated among collectors for its graceful depictions of Nike, the winged goddess of victory, on the reverse.
Ancient
Velia (Elea) Lion and Nymph Nomos
A classic South Italian silver nomos pairing a finely helmeted head of Athena with a striding or attacking lion, from the philosophically famous city of Velia.
Ancient
Syracuse Dekadrachm (Kimon)
A magnificent silver dekadrachm from ancient Syracuse signed by the master engraver Kimon, prized as one of the finest achievements of Greek coin art.
Ancient
Herakleia Herakles Nomos
A South Italian silver nomos from Herakleia showing Athena on the obverse and the city's namesake hero Herakles wrestling the Nemean lion on the reverse.
Ancient
Thurium (Thurii) Athena and Bull Nomos
Silver nomos of the Greek colony of Thurii in southern Italy, showing a helmeted Athena obverse and a butting bull reverse, a classic Magna Graecia type.
Ancient
Crown of the Double Rose
A gold coin introduced by Henry VIII in 1526 as part of his coinage reform, named for the crowned Tudor double rose on its reverse.
British
German Saxony Ducat
A high-purity gold trade coin struck for centuries by the rulers of Saxony, one of the most important German states before national unification.
European
Liberty Head Eagle ($10)
A long-running 19th-century gold coin featuring Christian Gobrecht's Coronet Head design, minted at numerous branch mints across the expanding United States.
United States
1876-CC Twenty-Cent Piece
One of the great rarities of United States coinage: a Carson City twenty-cent piece of which nearly the entire mintage was melted, leaving only a small number of survivors known.
United States
Constantine Sol Invictus Follis
A common bronze follis of Constantine the Great honoring Sol Invictus, the radiate sun god, struck empire-wide before his turn toward Christianity.
Ancient
Cartwheel Penny (1797)
A massive, one-ounce copper penny struck in 1797 by Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint, nicknamed the Cartwheel Penny for its thick raised rim resembling a cart's wheel and axle.
British