Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Spanish Colonial 4 Reales
A large silver colonial coin worth half a Spanish dollar, struck for Spain's American empire and bearing the crowned Spanish royal arms.
Colonial
Trinidad and Tobago 50 Cents
A large copper-nickel Caribbean circulation coin; the 1967 example carries the national coat of arms and country name on the obverse and the 50-cent value on the reverse.
Circulation
Spanish Colonial 2 Reales (Milled)
A small milled silver coin of the Spanish Empire, struck in colonial American mints; this example is dated 1776 and shows heraldic lions, castles and a crowned shield.
Colonial
Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle
United States $20 gold coin (1907–1933) designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, showing a striding Liberty with torch and olive branch before a radiant sun.
Gold Type Coin
Australian Fifty Cents
Australia's 50 cent coin bearing the national coat of arms. The 1966 round issue shown here was struck in silver; later 12-sided coins are cupronickel.
Australian
French Indochina Piastre
A 1928 silver piastre of French Indochina, its obverse showing seated Liberty with torch and laurel, its reverse reading UNION INDOCHINE FRANÇAISE in a floral wreath.
Southeast Asia
Bald Eagle Commemorative Half Eagle
A 2008 U.S. commemorative gold $5 half eagle honoring the recovery of the American bald eagle, featuring an eagle design and a heraldic Great Seal eagle.
Commemoratives
Counterstamped 8 Reales
A Charles IV silver 8 reales later punched with counterstamps and pierced with a central hole, layering a second life onto the classic Spanish dollar.
Colonial
Ambedkar Centenary One Rupee
A 1990 Indian one-rupee commemorative honoring the birth centenary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, its obverse bearing his bespectacled portrait and bilingual legend.
Modern India
Capped Bust Half Eagle
Early U.S. five-dollar gold coin with a left-facing capped Liberty and a shield-breasted eagle marked "5 D."; the 1822 shown is a legendary rarity.
United States
Turban Head Half Eagle
First U.S. gold $5 coin, 1795: Liberty in a soft cap facing right, with a heraldic shield-breasted eagle reverse struck in 22-karat gold.
Half Eagle
Medal of Honor Commemorative Half Eagle
US 2011 gold $5 commemorative honoring the Medal of Honor, showing the Army version of the medal above a Corinthian column.
Commemoratives
Guangxu Yuanbao 50 Cents
A Qing-dynasty silver half-dollar bearing the legend Guangxu Yuanbao and a coiled dragon, struck by Chinese provincial mints during the Guangxu Emperor's reign.
Circulation
Panama-Pacific Exposition $50 (Octagonal)
An eight-sided $50 gold commemorative struck for San Francisco's 1915 world's fair, showing Minerva and her owl — the largest U.S. coin of its era.
Classic Commemorative
1 Bu Gin
A small rectangular Japanese silver coin, the ichibu gin, worth one bu (a quarter ryo), bearing beaded borders, paulownia crests and Ginza inscriptions.
Historic
Ban Liang
A round bronze cash coin with a square central hole and two seal-script characters reading Ban Liang, from early imperial China.
Ancient
Broad
A gold twenty-shilling coin of the Protectorate bearing Oliver Cromwell's Roman-style profile and a crowned quartered shield, dated 1656.
Hammered
5 Bolivares
A crown-sized silver 5 bolivares of Venezuela: the head of Bolivar the Liberator on one side and the national coat of arms 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
Capped Bust Quarter
An early U.S. silver quarter dollar showing Liberty in a cloth cap over a shield-breasted eagle, struck at Philadelphia from 1815 to 1838.
Quarter
Belize 1 Cent
A small bronze one-cent coin from the Caribbean nation now called Belize, carrying a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and dated 1954.
Circulation
Barbados 1 Cent
A modern copper-colored Barbados one cent: the national coat of arms on the obverse and the value on the reverse, the smallest coin of the Barbadian dollar.
Circulation
Bavaria 3 Mark
A silver 3 Mark tied to Bavaria, pairing the crowned Bavarian shield with its rampant lion against a German imperial eagle, dated 1925.
Circulation
British Groat
A small George III silver fourpence of 1792, the British groat: laureate king's profile obverse, crowned shield and value reverse.
Circulation