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Portal:Numismatics

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The Numismatics Portal

Electrum coin from Ephesus, 520-500 BCE. Obverse: Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Experts of this study, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other means of payment used to resolve debts and exchange goods.

The earliest forms of money used by people are categorised by collectors as "odd and curious", but the use of other goods in barter exchange is excluded, even where used as a circulating currency (e.g., cigarettes or instant noodles in prison). As an example, the Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit, and gave small change in lambskins; the lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horses are not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as cowry shells, precious metals, cocoa beans, large stones, and gems. (Full article...)

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Banknotes of the third Zimbabwean dollar
Banknotes of the third Zimbabwean dollar
Banknotes of the third Zimbabwean dollar, from $1 to $100 trillion

The banknotes of Zimbabwe are the physical forms of Zimbabwean currency, including the dollar ($ or Z$) and the ZiG. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has issued most of the banknotes and other types of currency notes in its history, including bearer cheques and special agro-cheques ("agro" being short for agricultural) that circulated from September 2003 until December 2008, and bond notes from November 2016 until November 2019: Standard Chartered Zimbabwe also circulated their own emergency cheques from June 2003 to September 2004.

The first Zimbabwean banknotes were rolled out for the first dollar between July 1981 an April 1982, and replaced those of the Rhodesian dollar at par: banknotes (and later bearer cheques) of the first dollar circulated until August 2006, when they were replaced by bearer cheques of the second dollar due to high inflation (which escalated into hyperinflation in March 2007). Cheques (and later agro-cheques) of the second dollar were itself replaced by banknotes of the third dollar in August 2008, which were itself replaced by those of the fourth dollar in February 2009. The power-sharing government of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai abandoned the Zimbabwean dollar in April 2009, and banknotes of the third and fourth dollars were demonetised in September 2015 after over 6 years of disuse. Zimbabwean banknotes were reintroduced in November 2016, initially in response to a shortage of hard currency. (Full article...)

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Newfoundland 2 dollar coin
Reverse, Newfounland two dollars

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Type IIIb Achaemenid Daric, c. 420 BC.

The daric was a gold coin which, along with a similar silver coin, the siglos, represented the bimetallic monetary standard of the Achaemenid Empire.

Cyrus the Great (550–530 BC) introduced coins to the Persian Empire after 546 BC, following his conquest of Lydia and the defeat of its king Croesus, who had put in place the first coinage in history. It seems Cyrus initially adopted the Lydian coinage as such, and continued to strike Lydia's lion-and-bull coinage. (Full article...)

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Credit: commons:User:Red devil 666
Series of 1886 $1 silver certificates portraying Martha Washington, the only woman in United States history to be featured on its banknotes.

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Numismatic terminology

  • Bullion – Precious metals (platinum, gold and silver) in the form of bars, ingots or plate.
  • Error – Usually a mis-made coin not intended for circulation, but can also refer to an engraving or die-cutting error not discovered until the coins are released to circulation. This may result is two or more varieties of the coin in the same year.
  • Exonumia – The study of coin-like objects such as token coins and medals, and other items used in place of legal currency or for commemoration.
  • Fineness – Purity of precious metal content expressed in terms of one thousand parts. 90% is expressed as .900 fine.
  • Notaphily – The study of paper money or banknotes.
  • Scripophily – The study and collection of stocks and Bonds.

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Numismatic topics

Subcategories

Most traded currencies

Most traded currencies by value
Currency distribution of global foreign exchange market turnover[1]
Currency ISO 4217
code
Proportion of daily volume Change
(2022–2025)
April 2022 April 2025
U.S. dollarUSD88.4%89.2%Increase 0.8pp
EuroEUR30.6%28.9%Decrease 1.7pp
Japanese yenJPY16.7%16.8%Increase 0.1pp
Pound sterlingGBP12.9%10.2%Decrease 2.7pp
RenminbiCNY7.0%8.5%Increase 1.5pp
Swiss francCHF5.2%6.4%Increase 1.2pp
Australian dollarAUD6.4%6.1%Decrease 0.3pp
Canadian dollarCAD6.2%5.8%Decrease 0.4pp
Hong Kong dollarHKD2.6%3.8%Increase 1.2pp
Singapore dollarSGD2.4%2.4%Steady
Indian rupeeINR1.6%1.9%Increase 0.3pp
South Korean wonKRW1.8%1.8%Steady
Swedish kronaSEK2.2%1.6%Decrease 0.6pp
Mexican pesoMXN1.5%1.6%Increase 0.1pp
New Zealand dollarNZD1.7%1.5%Decrease 0.2pp
Norwegian kroneNOK1.7%1.3%Decrease 0.4pp
New Taiwan dollarTWD1.1%1.2%Increase 0.1pp
Brazilian realBRL0.9%0.9%Steady
South African randZAR1.0%0.8%Decrease 0.2pp
Polish złotyPLN0.7%0.8%Increase 0.1pp
Danish kroneDKK0.7%0.7%Steady
Indonesian rupiahIDR0.4%0.7%Increase 0.3pp
Turkish liraTRY0.4%0.5%Increase 0.1pp
Thai bahtTHB0.4%0.5%Increase 0.1pp
Israeli new shekelILS0.4%0.4%Steady
Hungarian forintHUF0.3%0.4%Increase 0.1pp
Czech korunaCZK0.4%0.4%Steady
Chilean pesoCLP0.3%0.3%Steady
Philippine pesoPHP0.2%0.2%Steady
Colombian pesoCOP0.2%0.2%Steady
Malaysian ringgitMYR0.2%0.2%Steady
UAE dirhamAED0.4%0.1%Decrease 0.3pp
Saudi riyalSAR0.2%0.1%Decrease 0.1pp
Romanian leuRON0.1%0.1%Steady
Peruvian solPEN0.1%0.1%Steady
Other currencies2.6%3.4%Increase 0.8pp
Total[a]200.0%200.0%

References

  1. Triennial Central Bank Survey Foreign exchange turnover in April 2025 (PDF) (Report). Bank for International Settlements. 30 September 2025. p. 14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-10-12.

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  1. The total sum is 200% because each currency trade is counted twice: once for the currency being bought and once for the currency being sold. The percentages above represent the proportion of all trades involving a given currency, regardless of which side of the transaction it is on.
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