(If you want the prices of coins, please refer to "Standard Catalog of World Coins" by Chester Krause.)

( If you want to buy coins please go to "Coin Seller's page" )

This web site is being built in a book format with two separate sections.

   The first section contains coin images from the Countries, Kingdoms & Empires between 700 BCE (Before Common Era) and 500 CE (Common Era).

The second section contains coin images from the Countries, Colonies & Empires between 500 and 2000 CE.

   The "Next" button at the bottom of each page will take you to the next page sequentially (like turning pages in a book) but in that section only.  Both sections share a common index.

How to navigate this web site ?

1.  If you like to browse through the catalog, start with the hyperlinks below.
 

Section 1:   Coins from 700 BCE - 500 CE
 

Section 2:    Coins from 500- 2000 CE
 

2.  If you like to go to a specific country or king, use "index" hyperlink below.

    All the Countries, Colonies, Kingdoms and Empires are listed alphabetically in the  Index.
 

The coins issued by each country are classified chronologically and arranged as sets. This is not by any means a  complete catalog of the coins. If you like to contribute, please send the scans of the missing coin images ( .jpg or .gif format, 2x size, 300 dpi) through email TheCoins@Bigfoot.com. Images of the coins in this site are not to any scale. They range from actual size to 4 times the actual size.

Why is a coin round ?

  The earliest known specimens of the coins were made of electrum ( an alloy of gold and silver). They were made in the kingdom of Lydia (western part of present day Turkey) around 700 BCE; probably to transform trade from a cumbersome barter system to a monetary system.¹  Others speculate that they were stuck as offerings to the Gods in their religious ceremonies. Lydia was on a caravan route from Greece through India to China.  Coins were also thought to be independently invented in China and India too (for detailed discussion see Invention of coins). The early coins were of different shapes - round, square, oblong, spade like and knife-like. Among the early civilizations, gold, silver and bronze coins were the units of value for the exchange of goods and services. The same coins were going round the centers of trade on the caravan route. This observation made the Chinese traders to say that the coins meant to roll around the world should themselves be round.² Thus, the 6th and 5th century BCE  spade like chinese bronze coins were replaced by round bronze coins in the later centuries. Thus de facto shape of the coin became round, but some of them are still struck in various shapes.

Why is it called a coin ?

 The word "coin" was derived from the Latin word "cuneus" meaning wedge. A wedge shaped die was used to stamp small pieces of metal that were used as money. The word coin was applied to the stamped image on the money.  Later, the word was used to denote the money itself.

and other money matters !

     The word "money" was derived from "Juno Mone'ta"(Juno the Monitress/Admonisher) the patron goddess of the earliest roman mint. The Romans believed that the  goddess Juno warns them of impending danger. Mone'ta in Latin means to warn. Shortly after the Gallic invasion, Lucius Furius built a temple to Juno Mone'ta  on the spot where the house of Manilus Capitolinos stood on Capitoline Hill in the city of Rome. The coins minted at the near by mint were kept at the temple and the temple was subsequently converted into a mint and the "ases" (bronze coins) minted there were called moneta³

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     The word "Capital" was derived from "Capita" meaning head of the cattle. Cattle used to be the wealth of the people in nomadic communities and early civilizations.
The oldest greek coins had an impression of ox on one side. In Roman times a bribe for silence was said to be an "ox on the tongue"³.

( Now a days we call it "Lobbying the Congress" to keep them silent on matters of education, health care  and welfare of the common man, woman and the child. :-)

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