Coin identifier app: scan a coin, see what it's worth

Buck is a coin identifier app, and a coin value app, for iPhone (iOS 17 or later) and Android (8.0 or later). Point the camera at a coin or a banknote, front then back, and Buck names it: country, denomination, series, roughly when it was struck, and an estimated value where the price guide has one. The coin goes into your collection with a running total, and the app tells you which marketplace suits it if you ever want to sell.

It is free to download. Browsing the catalog and keeping a collection cost nothing; scanning needs Buck Pro, $39.99 a year or $5.99 a week (US stores, checked 3 November 2026), with no free trial. There is no web version: the coin identifier is the app, and it needs your phone's camera.

What a coin identifier scan gives you

• Country and denomination. The part that used to take an evening with a reference book.
• Year or period, and the series. For a type struck across many years, the span the catalog holds.
• An estimated value. A range on current euro and sterling cash, a range or a single figure elsewhere, and no figure at all on about one type in five.
• A rarity rung, on the coins that have one, so a rare find reads as rare and a common one does not.
• Where to sell it. The marketplace that suits the coin in your country, from the coin's own page.
• The story. Two sentences on what the coin shows and why it was made.
• A collection. Every coin and banknote you scanned, with a total and badges for the milestones.

How the coin identifier app works

You photograph one coin at a time, front first, then the back. The app compares what it sees against a catalog of coin and banknote types and hands back the closest match, with a price range where the price guide has one.

Both sides matter. Plenty of coins share a design on one face and differ completely on the other, and the European Central Bank describes euro coins as having a common side plus a national side that "indicates the issuing country". A photo of the common side tells you the coin is a euro and nothing else.

A scanning session holds several coins, one per shot, with a running total, and the batch goes into your collection in one tap. If more than one coin is in the frame the app says "One coin at a time", which is what keeps a two-coin photo from being answered as though it were one coin.

Good light, a plain background and the coin filling most of the frame make the read better. Do not clean the coin first: cleaning removes value and a camera does not need it.

A coin value app, with the caveats

People search for a coin value app and a coin identifier app and mean the same thing: what is this, and what is it worth. Buck answers the first from the photo and the second from a price guide. The value is an estimate for a coin in ordinary condition, a range where the guide has one, and never an offer to buy. It is not a grade, and the grade is what moves most prices. Where a figure matters, the app also shows the marketplace that suits the coin, and the rest happens there.

Foreign coin identifier: the change from a trip

An unfamiliar foreign coin is where a coin identifier earns its keep. You do not need to know the country, the alphabet or the denomination to start; the photo carries them. Lettering, a portrait, a national symbol and a date are usually enough for a match, and a coin that has no legible date still names its country and type.

What is it worth? Usually face value. A handful of euro or sterling change from a holiday is worth roughly what it says on it. The larger figures sit with money that is out of circulation, struck in small numbers, or unworn.

Two rules keep ordinary change from reading like a windfall. The first is a floor: current euro coins and notes, the UK's circulating decimal coins and Bank of England notes are never priced under their face value, because a coin you can hand over in a shop is worth at least what the shop takes it for.

The second is a ceiling, on current euro and UK cash. A coin struck 20 million to 100 million times is capped at four times its face value, one struck 100 million times or more at twice face, and under 20 million the guide figure stands untouched. That cap binds on 79 of the 540 two-euro types we hold. It is a rule about mass-produced change and nothing wider.

The catalog is organized by type, so a mintage figure is the total across every year and every mint that struck it. We hold no per-year figures, which matters if your question is really about one date: that answer has to come from somewhere else.

Are coin identifier apps accurate?

At naming a coin they are better than most people expect, and at grading and pricing they are weak.

CoinWeek tested CoinSnap, a competitor of ours, on 15 coins in December 2023, 10 uncertified and 5 certified. Austin Purvis reported that the app "was able to accurately identify 14 out of the 15 coins provided, coming to 93% accuracy", and that on the five certified coins, the only ones in the test with a reference grade to check against, "only 40% were graded correctly". His warning about grading is worth keeping: the grade an app gives you "may be more of a reflection of your photography skills and/or the quality of your camera than the actual grade of the coin".

The American Numismatic Association's Reading Room reviewed the same app in November 2025 and landed on a similar split. Kevin Wang called the identification feature "excellent and the most useful aspect for numismatists", especially for foreign coins, while noting that results "can vary drastically depending on the lighting and quality of the photo" and that on price you should "treat the price as an estimate, as it is also by no means accurate".

That is their app. We measured ours on scans real people made, not on a shelf of coins we picked. On 288 random scans from real use (front and back, one per device, 7 to 15 September 2026, 82% from Italy, two thirds euro coins, 9 banknotes), country and denomination matched the label on 263 (91.3%), and the exact catalogue type on 219 of 281 (77.9%). The labels were read by two independent AI readers, with a third settling disagreements. That is our own check of our own app, not an outside test.

It is mostly euro coins, mostly from Italy, and nine banknotes in total. It says something about a handful of change from a European holiday and very little about an ancient coin, a US key date, or a worn silver piece with no legible date. When the read is unsure, or when the coin is described as gold and the record in front of it is a base metal coin, we decline to match at all.

What a photo cannot tell you

It cannot settle the grade. Wear is three-dimensional, read under angled light by somebody turning the coin in their fingers, and on a scarce piece the gap between two neighboring grades can be most of the value.

It cannot see whether the coin has been cleaned, which buyers and grading services check for and a phone camera at arm's length will not show you.

It cannot tell you the coin is genuine. The coins worth counterfeiting are exactly the ones people most want an app to confirm, and a convincing fake is built to survive being photographed.

It cannot rescue a worn date. If the year is soft, everything that depends on the year is guesswork, including anything we tell you about it.

For all four, the answer comes from someone holding the coin: a dealer across a counter, or a third-party grading service you mail it to. Use a coin identifier to find out what you have, then let a person decide what it is worth.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free coin identifier?

Buck is free to download, and browsing the catalog and keeping a collection cost nothing. Scanning a coin needs Buck Pro, $5.99 a week or $39.99 a year in US stores, with no free trial. Websites that identify a coin from an uploaded photo exist too; they answer the name, rarely the value with any care.

Can I take a picture of a coin to identify it?

Yes. Photograph the front, then the back, in good light, one coin at a time. Buck compares both sides against its catalog of coin and banknote types and returns the closest match: country, denomination, year or period, and an estimated value where the price guide has one.

How accurate is a coin identifier app?

Good at naming a coin, weak at grading it. On 288 random scans from real use in September 2026, Buck matched the country and denomination on 91.3% and the exact catalogue type on 77.9%. No app can read a coin's grade or authenticity from a photo, and those move most of the price.

Does it identify foreign and old coins?

Foreign coins are what a coin identifier does best: an unfamiliar design is named in seconds. Old and worn coins are harder. If the date is soft or the design is mostly gone, treat the answer as a shortlist and ask a dealer.

How do I know if my coin is worth money?

Most change is worth face value. The money sits with coins out of circulation, struck in small numbers, or unworn. Buck shows an estimated range from published price guides and tells you which marketplace suits the coin; a dealer or a grading service settles the exact figure.

Does Buck identify banknotes too?

Yes. Banknotes are photographed the same way, front then back, and land in the same collection, from current euros and dollars back to lire, pesetas, francs and marks.

What this page is based on: CoinWeek's December 2023 test of CoinSnap by Austin Purvis, the American Numismatic Association Reading Room review of the same app by Kevin Wang from November 2025, the European Central Bank on the two sides of a euro coin, and our own check of 288 scans from 7 to 15 September 2026. Prices are US store prices, checked 3 November 2026.