Identifying coins

Portrait, legend, and strike.

Read the obverse portrait and the legend around it, then the reverse type — together they usually identify ruler, mint, and date range. Size and metal narrow the denomination before you read a single letter.

Hammered coins are slightly irregular with off-centre strikes; milled (machine-struck) coins are round and even, a later technology. A coin that is perfectly round yet claims to be medieval has some explaining to do.

Piercings, clipped edges, mount marks, and graffiti are part of the coin’s biography — record them as history, not just damage. Weigh the coin and measure its diameter; both are diagnostic.

Wear should be consistent across the design; artificially “aged” fakes often show even, featureless surfaces or casting bubbles. Transcribe the legend letter by letter, gaps and all — an honest partial reading beats a guessed attribution.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on coins

Identifying tokens and jettons — Not quite coins.

Identifying Roman silver coins — Denarii, antoniniani, and siliquae — and how to tell them apart.

Identifying Roman bronze coins — From heavy sestertii to tiny late-Roman nummi.

Identifying Greek coins — City badges, gods, and fabric — reading coins struck before Rome ruled.

Identifying Celtic coins — Abstract horses, wreaths, and heads — coinage reimagined by Iron Age artists.

Identifying Byzantine coins — Crosses, Christ portraits, and big value marks — the empire after Rome.

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