International Coins

Bronze coin of the Constantine Dynasty. Constantine the Great and his sons were the first Christian emperors of Rome.

No leader in the 20th century was more influential or tenacious than Sir Winston Churchill. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War, the ”British Bulldog“ helped lead the Allied forces to victory, despite, as he...

Bronze coin of the Chola dynasty that ruled southern India in the 11th century CE.

Twenty centuries of Chinese bronze cash coins, representing five great dynasties, with familiar square hole design.

The Book of Kings, the epic poem by the tenth century Persian poet Ferdowsi, contains the following passage on the origins of chess:-One day an ambassador from the king of Hind arrived at the Persian court of Khusru, and after an oriental exchange of...

19th century Cambodian one-sided bronze coin with Buddhist Hamsa bird, symbolizing the acquisition of sacred knowledge.

Ten folders available.--Banknotes issued in unusual denominations by dictator Ni Win in 1985 Burma. He believed the numbers to be lucky.

Five banknotes used as scrip by the British military occupying Germany’s Rhine Valley after the Second World War. War can bring economic hardship—especially to the countries that lose. This was the case in Germany in 1945. Hitler was dead,...

Just before Christmas, 1940, Nazi aircraft flying over the United Kingdom from Norway bombed the harbor at Oban, Scotland, sinking a loaded cargo ship bound for Bombay, the S.S. Breda.--For five decades the wreck sat beneath the dark waters, her location...

The first tea in the American Colonies was imported from Batavia, in the Netherlands East Indies, by the Dutch East India Company—better known as the VOC. The new beverage was an instant hit. By the late 18th century, tea was extremely popular in...

The ”Blood Countess“ Erzsébet Báthory is the most prolific serial killer of all time. A member of the Hungarian nobility, she tortured and killed hundreds of young women over two and a half decades. This silver denar circulated in...

Piracy in the Caribbean arose because of a perfect storm of events including a literal perfect storm. First, the War of Spanish Succession, a World War Zero that saw the major European powers enjoined in battle for a dozen years, ended in 1714, leaving...

Piracy in the Caribbean arose because of a perfect storm of events including a literal perfect storm. First, the War of Spanish Succession, a World War Zero that saw the major European powers enjoined in battle for a dozen years, ended in 1714, leaving...

Struck from 1982-84, this Mexican 50 pesos coin features a design found on an ancient Aztec stone disc.

The Balkans were the powder keg of Europe before and after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914. In 1903, members of a radical secret society called the Black Hand killed the Serbian king and his mistress-turned-wife, in what...

Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military strategist, wrote The Art of War in the fifth century BC. The ancient treatise contains 13 chapters, each devoted to different aspects of warfare: strategy, discipline, weaponry, espionage, and so forth. The text...

A special set of 2 coins and 1 banknote issued in Uganda during the regime of the notorious dictator Idi Amin.

15 uncirculated, legal tender coins from 15 different African nations, all featuring images of their indigenous wildlife.

Oversized 5-afghani coin issued in 1961 by King Muhammed Zahir Shah features his portrait—in violation of Islamic law prohibiting graven images.

These coins are actual 1, 5 and 10 Reichspfennig coins struck by the Third Reich in zinc metal, and circulated throughout Germany and the occupied lands during the Second World War between 1940 and 1945. 100 Reichspfennigs equaled 1 Reichsmark. There is...

In 2003, at the age of 83, Pope John Paul II reached a rare and significant milestone: the 25th anniversary of his pontificate. To commemorate this anniversary, the Polish government issued this special-edition 2-z?otych coin.

The first Jewish coin was minted around 135 BCE by King John Hyrcanus I of Judea, founder of the Hasmonean dynasty that restored Israel to Jewish rule, giving rise to the so-called Second Temple Period.

When we think of ancient Rome, we think first of the gladiators. These professional fighters delighted frenzied crowds in the Colosseum, doing battle with wild animals, with condemned criminals, and with one another, sometimes fighting to the death. The...