Identifying Coins, A Brief Guide to Help Identify Coins

Identifying Coins
About 100,000 people per year visit our web site for information about
valuing or identifying their coins, 5,000 to 10,000 per year phone us
for the same purpose. Our purpose in providing this page is to try to
help you find the best way to identify your coin. This page only deals
with the problem of identification, see the links at the end of this
page for advice about values.

The Wrong Way
It might sound rather negative to start by telling you the wrong way to
identify your coin, but so many people do it even after reading our
advice, that we thought it better to include it near the top of the
page rather than at the end. Please don't phone us to describe your
coin or e-mail it to us, especially as a large scan. There are many
reasons why not, which will begee clear as you read on. This advice
also applies to phoning or e-mailing other dealers for the same reason.

The Right Way
Most coins are or were designed to be easy for people to recognise and
identify when used in transactions. The snag is that this applies to
people in the country of origin, and for the foreseeable lifetime after
the time of issue. This means that foreign coins and old coins can be
difficult to identify. To be able to identify any coin gepletely, you
will need to know most if not all of the following:-

Characteristics

* Country of Origin
* Metal
* Denomination or Face Value
* Date
* Genuine, Original, Restrike, or Forgery
* Coin or Medallion
* Design or Variety
* Exact Type, Proof or Normal

Other Characteristics
In addition, to help you work out which your coin is, you may find it helpful to determine each of the following:-

* Language
* Diameter
* Weight
* Colour
* Magnetism
* Thickness (rarely)

Where to Start
Start with what you already know! This may sound fairly obvious, but
it's very easy to overlook simple clues. Do you know the country? If
not, how about the language, any of the words, the images, the date.

Catalogues and Books
A good coin catalogue will help to identify most coins. Obviously the
difficult part is to know which catalogue to start searching first. For
world coins, the Krause series of World Coin catalogues are excellent.
There are now four main catalogues, each covering a different century,
starting with the 20th, and working back to the 17th. Each of these
contains approximately 2,000 pages, 40,000 to 50,000 illustrations, and
200,000 coin listings with prices. If you already know the country, you
may be best using a specialised catalogue for that country. Good
catalogues do cost money, but are worth the investment. If you only
have a small number of coins to identify, borrow one from your local
library.

The Country
If you can tell which country the coin is from, you are already about
half way to identifying it, especially if you have taken our advice and
acquired a catalogue. Whether or not you have identified which country
it's from, it will help to read the inscriptions (they are sometimes
referred to as legends). What language are they in?

Language
The inscriptions on many coins are in the native language of the
issuing country, however there are some important exceptions. There are
some languages which are almost universal. Many coins have Latin
inscriptions, English and British coins for example, in fact it's
almost correct to say that if the main inscriptions on a coin are in
English, the coin is almost certainly not English! They could be
American, Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand, or from one of
many African or Asian countries. Latin was used on most European coins
until the last few centuries, including Austria, France, Germany,
Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (Great Britain).
Some countries still use Latin. A quick Latin course will work wonders!
Coins with French inscriptions may be Belgian, Canadian, or from a
former French colony. Those with Spanish inscriptions could be from one
of the South American Countries, and Portuguese could indicate Brazil.

Alphabet