The Numismatics Portal

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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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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Credit: commons:User:Hiàn
The Big Nickel at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, Ontario.
Did you know...

- ...that with its two-dollar coin (reverse pictured), Newfoundland was the only British colony to issue circulating gold coinage?
- ...that Mount Burgess is nicknamed the Ten Dollar Mountain because it was featured on Canadian currency?
- ...that the American Buffalo gold bullion coin was the first .9999 fine 24-carat gold coin released by the United States Mint?
- ...that the Alabama centennial half dollar was the first commemorative coin minted with the image of a living individual?
- ...that Aksumite currency was the only native coinage to be issued in Africa without direct influence by an outside culture like Roman, Greek, etc...?
Related portals
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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.
WikiProjects
Numismatic topics
Money - Coins - Banknotes - Electronic money - Exchange rate - Legal tender - Clubs - Terminology
Ancient currency: Asia - Byzantium - Greece - Primitive Money - Roman - Indian coinage
Modern currency: Africa - The Americas - Asia and the Pacific - Europe - Bullion coins - Challenge coin - Commemorative coins - Token coins
Economics: Banking - Bonds - Cheques - Credit Cards - Fiat currency - Gold standard - Mints - Monetary union - Reserve currency - Stocks
Production: Coining (machining) - Designers - Die making - Mint (coin) • Coinage Metals: Aluminum - Bronze - Copper - Gold - Platinum - Silver - Tin
Subcategories
Most traded currencies
| Currency | ISO 4217 code |
Proportion of daily volume | Change (2022–2025) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2022 | April 2025 | |||
| U.S. dollar | USD | 88.4% | 89.2% | |
| Euro | EUR | 30.6% | 28.9% | |
| Japanese yen | JPY | 16.7% | 16.8% | |
| Pound sterling | GBP | 12.9% | 10.2% | |
| Renminbi | CNY | 7.0% | 8.5% | |
| Swiss franc | CHF | 5.2% | 6.4% | |
| Australian dollar | AUD | 6.4% | 6.1% | |
| Canadian dollar | CAD | 6.2% | 5.8% | |
| Hong Kong dollar | HKD | 2.6% | 3.8% | |
| Singapore dollar | SGD | 2.4% | 2.4% | |
| Indian rupee | INR | 1.6% | 1.9% | |
| South Korean won | KRW | 1.8% | 1.8% | |
| Swedish krona | SEK | 2.2% | 1.6% | |
| Mexican peso | MXN | 1.5% | 1.6% | |
| New Zealand dollar | NZD | 1.7% | 1.5% | |
| Norwegian krone | NOK | 1.7% | 1.3% | |
| New Taiwan dollar | TWD | 1.1% | 1.2% | |
| Brazilian real | BRL | 0.9% | 0.9% | |
| South African rand | ZAR | 1.0% | 0.8% | |
| Polish złoty | PLN | 0.7% | 0.8% | |
| Danish krone | DKK | 0.7% | 0.7% | |
| Indonesian rupiah | IDR | 0.4% | 0.7% | |
| Turkish lira | TRY | 0.4% | 0.5% | |
| Thai baht | THB | 0.4% | 0.5% | |
| Israeli new shekel | ILS | 0.4% | 0.4% | |
| Hungarian forint | HUF | 0.3% | 0.4% | |
| Czech koruna | CZK | 0.4% | 0.4% | |
| Chilean peso | CLP | 0.3% | 0.3% | |
| Philippine peso | PHP | 0.2% | 0.2% | |
| Colombian peso | COP | 0.2% | 0.2% | |
| Malaysian ringgit | MYR | 0.2% | 0.2% | |
| UAE dirham | AED | 0.4% | 0.1% | |
| Saudi riyal | SAR | 0.2% | 0.1% | |
| Romanian leu | RON | 0.1% | 0.1% | |
| Peruvian sol | PEN | 0.1% | 0.1% | |
| Other currencies | 2.6% | 3.4% | ||
| Total[a] | 200.0% | 200.0% | ||
References
- 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.
Web resources
- NumisWiki
- International Association of Professional Numismatists
- American Numismatic Association
- American Numismatic Society
- British Numismatic Association
- American Vecturist Association
- Challenge Coin Association
- Numismatic Museum of Athens, Greece
- The Perth Mint Australia
- Central Mint of China
- Royal Mint
- The French Mint
- United States Mint
- Bank of Russia
- Royal Canadian Mint
- Exact Change numismatic software
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Sources
- 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.




















