Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
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
British Guinea
England's premier gold coin for over 150 years, named for the West African region that supplied much of its gold and eventually valued at 21 shillings.
British
Roman Aureus of Augustus
A gold coin struck under Rome's first emperor, Augustus, marking the establishment of a stable imperial gold coinage that funded and symbolized the new Roman Empire.
Ancient
Liberty Head Double Eagle
A large gold twenty-dollar coin featuring Liberty's coronet-crowned head, struck for decades amid the California Gold Rush and westward mint expansion.
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
Japanese Oban
A large, oval, hand-hammered gold plate coin of feudal Japan, used mainly as a gift, reward, or ceremonial item rather than everyday currency, among the largest gold coins ever issued.
Asian
Indian Head Half Eagle ($5)
A uniquely designed gold five-dollar coin featuring an incuse (recessed) design by Bela Lyon Pratt, the only U.S. circulating coin ever struck this way.
United States
Draped Bust Eagle
The formal catalog name for the first U.S. ten-dollar gold coin once it adopted a bold heraldic eagle reverse in 1797, the same coin popularly nicknamed the 'Turban Head' eagle.
United States
Mexican Silver Libertad
Mexico's widely collected silver bullion coin, sharing the Angel of Independence design with the Gold Libertad and issued in a range of weights since 1982.
Bullion
Rose Noble (Ryal)
A large English gold coin first struck under Edward IV in 1465, showing the king standing in a ship, and later revived in the Tudor era as a heavier, higher-value gold piece.
British
Austrian Silver Philharmonic
Austria's modern one-ounce silver bullion coin, launched in 2008 as a companion to the long-running gold Philharmonic, featuring the instruments of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bullion
Theodosius I Solidus
A gold solidus of Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule a united Roman Empire and the ruler who made Nicene Christianity the state religion.
Ancient
Dutch Ducat
A small, nearly pure gold coin showing an armored knight, minted for centuries by the Dutch provinces and later the Kingdom of the Netherlands as a trusted international trade coin.
European
Broad
A gold twenty-shilling coin nicknamed the 'Broad' for its wide, thin flan, struck under the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell and continued briefly into the early reign of Charles II.
British
Indian Head Quarter Eagle ($2.50)
A small gold coin featuring Bela Lyon Pratt's distinctive incuse Native American design, one of only two U.S. denominations ever struck with recessed devices.
United States
Valentinian I Solidus
A high-purity gold solidus of Valentinian I, founder of the Valentinianic dynasty, reflecting the stable gold standard established under Constantine.
Ancient
Indian Head Eagle ($10)
A striking early 20th-century gold eagle designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens as part of President Theodore Roosevelt's push to beautify American coinage.
United States
George Noble
A short-lived English gold coin of 1526 depicting St. George slaying the dragon, among the rarest coins of Henry VIII's reign.
British
Venetian Ducat
Gold coin first struck by the Republic of Venice in 1284, prized for its remarkably consistent weight and purity, which made it a dominant trade coin across medieval and Renaissance Europe.
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
French 20 Franc Rooster
A French Third Republic gold coin replacing royal and imperial portraits with republican symbolism: Marianne on the obverse and a standing Gallic rooster on the reverse.
European
Persian Kran (Qajar silver)
The standard silver coin of Qajar Persia, worth one-tenth of a gold toman, widely struck under Naser al-Din Shah and later rulers and commonly seen with the lion-and-sun emblem.
Asian
1883 No Cents Liberty Head Nickel
The first-year Liberty Head Nickel design that omitted the word CENTS from the reverse, later infamous as the 'Racketeer Nickel' after being gold-plated and passed off as a five-dollar coin.
United States
Carthage Zeugitania Electrum Stater
A gold-silver electrum coin struck by Carthage, chiefly to fund its wars in Sicily, showing a wreathed female head and a horse or horse's head.
Ancient