We have studied information from all numismatic catalogs and we would like to share interesting facts and statistics of the world coins.
Throughout the history of the world were 3577 different countries including empires, dutchies, states, manicipalities, free cities, districts, lordships and counties that had their own currencies. Here is a full list of administrative units that has own currency and were used as a source for this article.
The oldest coins were minted in ancient Greece, in the Kingdom of Lydia (modern-day western Turkey). They were minted from Electrum (alloy of gold and silver).
Stater (625 BC - 600 BC). Coin minted before ±2700 years.
Since first coins until 2021 throughout the history of the world were minted 173147 different type of coins:
Silver (alloy contain at least 10% silver): 81687
Gold (gold plated not included): 27888
Bronze: 16699
Copper: 10881 (at least 75% of copper)
Brass: 3766 (alloy content not less than 70%)
Zinc: 1939 (pure Zinc, plus 165 coins plated with other metals)
Aluminum: 1947
Lead: 216
Nickel: 1231
Nickel-brass: 1143
Copper-nickel (no less than 65% of copper): 10168
Aluminum-bronze: 1689
Nordic gold: 472
Bimetallic (any kind): 2306
Trimetallic: 66
Electrum: 563
Acmonital: 41
Iron: 1550
Steel (incl. stainless steel): 533
Titan: 31
Billon: 4035
Tin: 282
Coins that has 4 or more different alloys were not included.