Coin Encyclopedia
Search and identify coins from around the world — with country, denomination, metal, mint, history, and how to tell them apart.
Spanish Colonial Cob (Macuquina)
Crude, irregularly shaped hand-struck coins produced at Spanish colonial mints in the Americas for over two centuries, forming the basis of the famous 'pieces of eight' that circulated worldwide.
Latin American
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
Spanish Peseta
The peseta was Spain's national currency for over 130 years, evolving from silver coinage under a provisional 19th-century government to copper-nickel coins used until the euro replaced it in 2002.
European
Athens New Style Owl Tetradrachm
Later Athenian silver tetradrachm on a broad, thin flan showing the owl standing on an amphora within an olive wreath, distinct from the earlier classical owl coinage.
Ancient
Spanish 4 Reales
A mid-value denomination of Spain's traditional real-based coinage, struck for centuries in both Spain and its American colonies.
European
Spanish Gold Doubloon
A popular name for large Spanish colonial gold coins, typically two, four, or eight escudos, forever associated with pirate treasure and sunken Spanish galleons.
World
Spanish Gold Escudo (Doubloon)
The gold denomination of the Spanish Empire, whose larger multiples became famous as "doubloons," struck both in Spain and across its American colonial mints for centuries.
European
Spanish 2 Reales Pillar
The Pillar 2 Reales was a fractional Spanish colonial silver coin featuring the famous Pillars of Hercules design, struck at mints across Spanish America and widely used in international trade.
Latin American
Spanish 8 Reales Portrait Dollar
The globally trusted "Spanish dollar" bearing a king's portrait, minted across Spain's vast colonial empire and so widely circulated it directly inspired the U.S. dollar sign and denomination.
European
Spanish Colonial Gold Escudo (Doubloon)
The gold coinage of the Spanish American colonies, popularly nicknamed the doubloon, struck in denominations up to 8 escudos and famous from pirate and shipwreck lore.
Latin American
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
Spanish 8 Reales (Piece of Eight)
The legendary 'piece of eight,' Spain's silver dollar-sized coin that became the world's first truly global currency and the direct ancestor of the U.S. dollar.
World
Spanish Colonial 8 Reales Ferdinand VII
A large silver 8 reales coin struck across Spain's American colonies bearing the portrait of King Ferdinand VII, widely circulated internationally and historically linked to the origin of the US dollar sign.
World
Spanish 100 Reales Gold (Isabel II)
A mid-19th-century Spanish gold coin struck under Queen Isabel II, part of Spain's pre-peseta reales-based monetary system.
European
Spanish-Philippine 8 Reales Counterstamped Dollar
Spanish colonial 8 reales silver dollar officially countermarked for circulation in the Philippines, a hybrid of Spanish American and Philippine monetary history.
Asian
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
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
Kellogg & Co. Gold Piece
Private gold coinage struck by the San Francisco firm Kellogg & Co. during the California Gold Rush, including the famous octagonal fifty-dollar 'slug' of 1855, filling a shortage of circulating coin.
United States
Mexican 8 Reales Pillar Dollar
Minted in colonial Mexico City from 1732 to the early 1770s, the pillar dollar's crowned globes and Pillars of Hercules design made it one of the most widely trusted silver trade coins in the world.
Latin American
Visigothic Gold Tremissis
Small gold coin of the Visigothic kings of Spain, evolving from crude imitations of Roman/Byzantine coinage into the first distinctly national royal coinage of post-Roman Western Europe.
European
2004 Wisconsin State Quarter Extra Leaf
A famous modern variety of the 2004 Wisconsin state quarter showing an unexplained extra leaf on the corn cob, found in both 'low leaf' and 'high leaf' forms.
Errors & Varieties
Peru 8 Reales (Lima Mint)
The flagship silver dollar-size coin of colonial and early republican Peru, struck at the historic Lima mint from cob and pillar types through crowned-shield busts.
Latin American
Korean 5 Yang Silver Dollar (1892)
Korea's first Western-style, dollar-sized silver coin, struck in 1892 with a coiled dragon design as part of King Gojong's currency modernization.
Asian
Kennedy Half Dollar
A half dollar issued starting in 1964 to honor assassinated President John F. Kennedy, quickly becoming a widely saved and collected commemorative-style circulating coin.
United States