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About "Coins from Famous People in History"

This is a site about coins issued by famous people, not coins commemorating famous people.

At least one of the following will apply:

1) That famous person ruled the country or territory in which the coin was minted, at the actual time that the coin was minted.

2) That famous person was in charge of the mint during the period of time the coin was minted.

3) The coin was designed by that famous person, and issued during that person's lifetime.

All coins shown are genuine, and are fairly easily acquired today.

Any suggestions on additional famous people? Please let me know.

Personalities are selected because they are famous and not on the basis of merit.  For example, Caligula  and Trajan both were Roman emperors who issued coins that are easily acquired.  Even though historians agree that Trajan was an all-around better emperor, most people have heard of Caligula, but have not heard of Trajan.   Thus, Caligula is included, but Trajan is not.

Likewise, personalities in this list must have issued coins, or had coins issued under their authority.  For example, Buddha was a famous and influential guy, but since he didn't issue coins, he does not qualify for this list.  (Coins that show or mention Buddha do not qualify since they were not issued by him).

Coins must be definitively associated with each person, firmly dated to the particular person's period of rule or influence.  For example, Cyrus the Great had many coins issued during his reign.  However, the same coins continued to be struck after his death.   As it is not possible to determine which coins were struck during his rule, he is not included in this list.

This was a website I first put together in 1998 and 1999. That was the early days of the internet, and much has changed. I was allotted only 5 Megabytes of total space (not Gigabytes, but Megabytes). In those days, dial-up connections were typical, and images were small. In late 2014 I have spent some time updating the site, with higher resolution images and more images. Luckily, the subject matter – the historical figures and the coins themselves, remain the same.

All these coins are in my collection. Though I got most of these coins years ago, it is far easier and no more costly to acquire a similar collection today. Some coins have increased in value, but others are worth considerably less now. I put the collection together on a modest budget, at a time when transactions occurred in person by traveling to various coin shows, or through lists arriving via snail mail. It was often difficult to locate specific coins. For example, Simon Bolivar is a legendary politician and military leader throughout South America, but ruled coin-issuing countries for only certain short periods of time. He ruled Greater Columbia from 1826 to 1830, so only Columbian coins dated 1827, 1828 or 1829 could be considered to have been definitely issued under his period of rule. It was a challenge to find one going through dealers stock at shows. Whe I finally found one, it was wise to buy it regardless of price or condition. Now it is easier to put together a similar collection – it can be done with the convenience of web searches and mouse clicks.

Back to “Coins from Famous People in History"

Syosset Coin

If you know where I can get a reasonably-priced coin from Charlemagne, please let me know

Any questions or comments?  Please feel free to e-mail me at dkaplan888@aol.com