Foreign Coins

Identifying foreign coins has not always been an easy task due to the difficulty in translating the language or numbering system into something that is recognizable. Thankfully most old or new foreign coins have a lot in common. They will usually include the date the coin was minted, the denomination and the country of origin. Determining the value of foreign coins is a more difficult task due to factors such as grade, rarity and demand.

If you just want to find out where and when a coin was minted you should analyze the coin for the following characteristics.

Language
While the inscriptions on most coins are usually in the native language of the country where they were minted there are exceptions. These exceptions often include English inscriptions which can be found on many foreign coins from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America, India and some Asian and African countries.

While you would expect many old European coins to use their native language, in fact Latin was widely used for inscriptions until the last few centuries. These include old coins from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Peru and Mexico.

Many old coins contain inscriptions in the language of their colonial powers such as Spanish inscriptions on many of the South American countries. French inscriptions can also be found on old Canadian and Belgian coins and on the coins of a number of former French colonies.

If the coin contains a Latin alphabet it should be easier to use online resources or books to do a search when trying to find out where and when a coin was minted. For coins that do not use the Latin alphabet you may have to rely on photographs of typical coins from lots of different countries until you find one that matches. Countries that are geographically and historically linked will often use similar symbols and characters.

Inscriptions on foreign coins have a lettering or writing system that will often fall into a number of distinct families or groups of languages. These may be Arabic, Amharic, Greek, Cyrillic, Krause, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Persian and the Indian class of languages.

Date
Dates on foreign coins can be difficult to identify as they may use a different dating system or numerals that are different from our own. You may need to convert the date from the local calendar to a western one. Conversion charts can be used for translating these numerals and the ‘Krause catalogs’ are useful for providing information about numerals from the eastern languages.

If you can obtain the date on a coin you can then identify which Krause catalog to use to narrow down the search. Most coins contain portraits of monarchs or rulers which can be matched to photographs. Knowing the portrait and date of the coin will help establish the time and place where the coin was minted. The next step will be to establish its denomination or face value.

Denomination or Face value
Different countries have different names for fractions of that currency. The Mexican escudo and reales or the American dollar or cent are just two examples. Knowing the denomination of an old foreign coin is not easy as many fractional denominations including the coins themselves that are no longer in existence. However if you have already pinpointed the date and country of origin, finding the denomination of the coin should be a much easier task when you have access to photographs from catalogues or online sources.

Metal Content
The metal content of an old foreign coin can be established by its weight and color. Bronze, brass and copper are brown or red in color and are lighter than gold coins which have a distinctive yellow hue. They are also richer in color and warmer to the touch and do not tarnish so easily.

Most of today’s silvery looking coins use an allow of copper and nickel (cupro-nickel combination). Yellow coins are made from a combination of nickel and brass (Nickel-Brass combination).