How to Use This Portal & Identify a Coin
New to numismatics, or just new to this catalog? Here's everything you need to get started.
Two Ways to Explore the Catalog
Depending on whether you already know what you're looking for, one of these two starting points will usually be faster:
The Search Tool
Best when you already know something specific — a year, a mint, a price range you're shopping within. Pick any one filter, or combine several, and only matching coins show up.
Browse the Full Catalog
Best when you're not sure yet what you're looking for. Everything is organised by category, with dedicated sections to browse by year, mint, denomination, rarity, or price range.
Using the Search Tool
The search tool offers six independent filters: Year, Denomination, Mint, Rarity, Price Range, and Category (Definitive, Commemorative Circulating, or Commemorative Non-Circulating).
You don't need to fill in every field — selecting just one is enough to see results, and adding more narrows things further. For example, selecting only a Mint will show every design that mint has ever struck; adding a Year on top narrows that down to just that mint's output in that specific year.
Results show the full picture for each matching design — both coin images, its physical specifications, and a table of only the specific year/mint entries that actually match what you searched for, not the design's entire history.
Browsing the Full Catalog
The full catalog index groups every design by category, and offers five additional ways to browse:
By Year
Every design with at least one issue in that year.
By Mint
Everything struck at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, or Noida.
By Denomination
All design eras issued for a given face value.
By Rarity
Every design with at least one entry at a given rarity level.
By Price Range
Designs with a recorded price in that band, in any grade.
Every individual design also has its own page, showing both coin images, full physical specifications (metal, weight, size, shape, edge), and a complete table of every year and mint it was struck in — along with links to related year, mint, rarity, category, and denomination pages, so you can keep exploring from there.
A Quick Primer: How to Identify a Coin
Every Indian coin can be identified using a handful of details. Here's the short version — for the complete reference tables (including every domestic and foreign mint mark, the full metal composition chart, and detailed condition and rarity guides), see the identification section on our search page.
Denomination
The face value — e.g. 2 Naye Paise, 25 Paise, 1 Rupee.
Design
The imagery on the obverse and reverse — often the clearest way to tell two eras of the same denomination apart.
Year & Mint Mark
The year appears on the coin itself; a small symbol below it (or its absence) identifies which of the four mints struck it.
Metal, Weight & Shape
Physical specifications that often changed even within the same denomination over time.
Condition (Grade)
How much wear the coin shows — Fine, Very Fine, Extra Fine, or Uncirculated — which drives most of the price difference between two examples of the same coin.
Rarity
How hard that specific year-and-mint combination is to find at all, independent of what condition it's in.
⚠️ Before You Sell Anything
If anyone has ever offered you an unusually large sum for an ordinary old coin or note, please read our fraud awareness guide before sending any money — this is a very common and well-documented scam pattern.