Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Halfpenny
A small British bronze coin worth half a penny, best known in its twentieth-century form featuring Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind on the reverse.
British
Chinese Ban Liang Cash
China's first standardized round coin with a square center hole, introduced under Qin Shi Huang to unify currency across the newly consolidated Chinese empire.
Ancient
Spanish 5 Pesetas Silver (Duro)
Spain's classic large silver crown coin, popularly nicknamed the 'duro,' issued under several monarchs and a provisional republic in the late 19th century.
European
German Hamburg Ducat
A small, exceptionally high-purity gold trade coin struck for centuries by the free city of Hamburg, prized for its consistent fineness and long production history.
European
Liberty Head Quarter Eagle ($2.50)
A small 19th-century gold coin featuring Christian Gobrecht's Coronet Head design, minted across many branch facilities during America's gold rush era.
United States
Russian Ruble (Imperial)
The principal silver coin of the Russian Empire, struck for over two centuries and bearing the portraits of successive tsars and the imperial double-headed eagle.
European
French Franc Germinal
Not a single coin but the bimetallic monetary standard fixed by Napoleon's 1803 law, defining the franc's silver and gold content for over a century.
European
Netherlands East Indies VOC Duit
Copper coin struck by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for circulation in its Asian trading territories, a common relic of 18th-century colonial commerce.
Asian
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
Augustus Denarius
The main silver coin of Rome's first emperor, Augustus, whose long reign established the imperial monetary system that would last for centuries.
Ancient
Indian Head Gold Quarter Eagle ($2.50)
A small early 20th-century $2.50 gold coin notable for its incuse design and Native American war bonnet portrait, designed by sculptor Bela Lyon Pratt.
United States
Half Groat
A small hammered silver coin worth half the value of the groat, or two pence, struck across three centuries of English coinage from the reign of Edward III through the Stuart era.
British
German States Thaler
A large silver coin struck by the many independent states of the German-speaking world for over three centuries, and the direct linguistic ancestor of the word 'dollar.'
European
Australian Threepence (pre-decimal)
Small pre-decimal Australian silver coin worth three pence, popularly recognized for its bundled wheat-ear reverse design used across most of the 20th century.
Africa & Oceania
Reichsthaler
The standard large silver coin of the Holy Roman Empire and its constituent German states from the 16th century onward, whose name is the direct linguistic ancestor of the word 'dollar.'
European
Umayyad Silver Dirham
A silver coin of the Umayyad Caliphate struck after Caliph Abd al-Malik's monetary reform, bearing only Arabic inscriptions and setting the template for centuries of Islamic coinage.
World
French Ecu (Louis d'Argent)
France's principal large silver coin of the pre-revolutionary era, bearing the reigning king's portrait, used as the standard silver crown-sized coin for over a century before decimalization.
European
Persian Gold Toman (Qajar)
The principal gold coin of Qajar Persia, valued at ten silver kran, struck under a succession of shahs from the late 18th century until the dynasty's end in 1925.
Asian
Austrian Gold Ducat
A traditional high-purity Austrian gold trade coin with centuries of history, still struck today by the Austrian Mint as an official restrike permanently dated 1915.
European
Prussian Thaler
The Prussian Thaler was the leading silver coin of the powerful Kingdom of Prussia, circulating from the mid-18th century until German unification replaced it with the mark in 1871–1873.
European
Ottoman Silver Akce
A tiny silver coin that served as the basic everyday currency unit of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, gradually shrinking in size and silver content as inflation took hold.
World
Swiss 20 Franc Vreneli
Switzerland's classic gold franc coin, depicting a young Swiss woman nicknamed Vreneli on the obverse and the Swiss shield on the reverse, a favorite of gold savers for over a century.
European
Australian Holey Dollar and Dump
In 1813, colonial authorities in New South Wales punched the centers out of Spanish silver dollars to create two coins from one, easing a severe coin shortage while preventing the silver from leaving the colony.
Africa & Oceania
Papal States Scudo
The principal silver coin of the Papal States, bearing the portrait or arms of the reigning pope alongside religious imagery, struck for centuries until the Papal territories' loss of independence.
European