Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
US Olympic Commemorative Dollar (1983)
The first coin in a two-year US commemorative program supporting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the 1983 silver dollar features a discus-thrower design and marked a revival of American commemorative coinage.
Commemorative
Canadian Colored Maple Leaf
A colorized variant of Canada's iconic Maple Leaf bullion coin, applying vivid printed designs over the standard maple leaf or themed reverse to create eye-catching collector editions.
Canadian
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
Argentina 8 Reales
Silver 8 reales struck after Argentina's 1810 independence movement, replacing the Spanish king's portrait with the revolutionary Sun of May and clasped hands design.
Latin American
Kwangtung Province Dragon Dollar
One of the earliest Chinese machine-struck silver dollars, issued by Kwangtung Province and featuring a coiled dragon reverse that became the template for Chinese provincial dollar coinage.
Asian
Mexican 8 Reales Cap and Rays
The classic silver dollar of independent Mexico, showing a radiant Phrygian liberty cap over mountains, widely trusted and traded across the Americas and Asia for most of the 19th century.
Latin American
Korean Gwangmu Half Won (1905)
Silver half-won coin from the short-lived Korean Empire's Gwangmu currency reform, struck shortly before Korea fell under increasing Japanese control.
Asian
2008 Beijing Olympics Commemorative Coins
China issued a large multi-year coin program ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, spanning circulating 1 Yuan pieces and extensive gold and silver proof series depicting Olympic sports and Beijing landmarks.
Commemorative
Yuan Shih-kai Dollar ("Fat Man Dollar")
A widely circulated Republic of China silver dollar bearing the portrait of President Yuan Shikai, nicknamed the "Fat Man Dollar" for his rounded features and became China's standard silver coin for years.
Asian
Walking Liberty Half Dollar
Widely admired U.S. half dollar designed by Adolph A. Weinman, depicting Liberty striding toward the sun and a bold eagle on the reverse; its obverse design was later revived for the Silver Eagle.
United States
Victoria Fifty Cents (half dollar)
Canada's silver fifty-cent piece struck under Queen Victoria from 1870 to 1901, featuring her portrait and a heraldic shield-and-wreath reverse.
Canadian
Bolivia 8 Reales (Potosi Mint)
A major Spanish colonial and early Bolivian silver dollar struck at the legendary Potosí mint, fed by the immense silver deposits of the Cerro Rico mountain.
Latin American
George V Fifty Cents
Canada's fifty-cent silver coin issued under King George V, spanning a reduction in silver fineness in 1920 and including the famously rare 1921 date.
Canadian
Joachimsthaler
Struck beginning in 1520 in the Bohemian silver-mining town of Joachimsthal, this large silver coin gave its name, shortened to 'thaler' and later 'dollar,' to countless currencies around the world.
European
Spanish Colonial Cob 8 Reales (Macuquina)
A crudely hand-struck Spanish colonial silver coin, cut from irregular silver bars and stamped with a cross and shield, famed worldwide as the original 'piece of eight'.
Latin American
Seated Liberty Dollar
A mid-19th century silver dollar depicting Liberty seated on a rock, the standard large silver dollar of the United States before the Trade dollar and Morgan dollar.
United States
French 5 Francs "Napoleon"
A large silver crown-sized coin bearing the portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, first as First Consul and later as Emperor, marking France's decimal franc system's early flagship silver denomination.
European
Nero Denarius
The silver coin of the notorious emperor Nero, whose AD 64 currency reform slightly reduced the denarius's silver content and weight, a step in the long history of Roman debasement.
Ancient
French Indochina Sarraut Piastre (1931)
A reduced-weight silver piastre introduced in 1931 for French Indochina after rising world silver prices made the older, larger trade piastre worth more in bullion than in face value.
Asian
Ottoman Kurus (Piastre)
The standard Ottoman monetary unit for centuries, struck in silver or base metal bearing the sultan's tughra, later becoming a subunit of the Ottoman lira after 1844.
World
Yuan Shikai 'Fatman' Dollar (1914)
A widely produced Republic of China silver dollar bearing the portrait of President Yuan Shikai, nicknamed the fat man dollar for his portly likeness, one of the most common historic Chinese silver coins.
Asian
Mexican Emperor Maximilian Peso
A silver peso struck during the brief reign of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, whose short-lived Second Mexican Empire ended with his execution in 1867.
Latin American
Argentine 1 Peso 'Liberty Head'
A short-lived Argentine silver peso from the early 1880s featuring a Liberty head design, struck only briefly before Argentina's monetary standards shifted.
Latin American
Maundy Twopence
A small silver twopence struck each year as part of the Royal Maundy set, historically descended from the medieval silver half groat and still distributed in the annual royal alms ceremony.
British