Frequently asked questions
Playing
When does the new coin appear?
At midnight Hawaii time, which is 10:00 UTC — the same instant everywhere in the world. The countdown on the board shows exactly how long is left where you are. There is one coin a day.
How many guesses do I get?
Six. A guess is an issuer and a year together. Once you have one half right, it locks and your remaining guesses go to the other half.
What counts as the right date?
You do not need the exact year. Any year inside the coin's own range counts as the right era, and the board tells you when you are there. The range is wider for coins that can only be dated approximately.
What is an “issuer”? Why can't I guess Italy for a Roman coin?
The issuer is the state, country, empire or tribe that struck the coin, as it existed then: the Roman Empire, not Italy; the Dutch Republic, not the Netherlands. Type a modern country's name and you will only see the issuers that actually bore that name. Use the map to find what existed in the year you have in mind — that is what it is for.
What do the distance and the arrow mean?
The distance is how far your issuer's capital is from the right one's; the arrow points from your guess toward the answer. For time you get a direction — too early or too late — and a broad band for how far off you are, never an exact number of years, so the game cannot be solved by arithmetic.
Why does the back of the coin appear only later?
It is revealed after your second guess, as a help rather than a reward. Coins with only one struck face get a written clue at the same point.
Why is part of the coin covered?
The seals hide only what would give the answer away in a glance — a date in modern numerals, a country's name in Latin letters. Portraits, symbols, scripts, mint marks and legends stay open; reading them is the game. The seals are overlays on the screen, not edits to the photograph, which is shown exactly as the collection published it.
What do Classic, Tricky and Challenge mean?
They are difficulty tiers. Classic is most days: a coin a curious person can place from what is on it. Tricky needs closer reading. Challenge, about once a week, is a coin collectors love and newcomers may never have seen — those days come with tips.
Is there a hint or an answer for today's coin anywhere?
No hints or answers are published while a coin is live. Inside the game you have three: the back of the coin after your second guess, tips on Challenge days, and the map, which shows which issuers existed in the year you picked. When you solve the coin or use your sixth guess, the board shows the full answer with the coin's story and its source. Yesterday's coin, fully revealed, is on the About page.
Can I play yesterday's coin, or older games?
You can see yesterday's, not play it. Each coin is live for one day; the day after, it appears fully revealed, with its story and source, on the About page. Older coins are not kept online, and a link to a past day opens today's coin with a note that the day has passed.
I missed a day. What happens to my streak?
Your streak counts consecutive days played, not days won — a missed day resets it. Your total of games played keeps counting.
Where are my stats kept? Do they sync between devices?
In your browser's local storage, on the device you are using, and nowhere else. Nothing is sent to us. There are no accounts, so there is no sync: play on two devices and you have two streaks. Clearing the site's data clears them.
Can I share my result without spoiling the coin?
Yes. The share text says only the game number and how many tries it took — “I solved Guessmint #80 in 4 tries.” — never the issuer or the date.
The coins
Where do the photographs come from?
From museums and libraries that publish their collections under open licenses — public domain, CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA — and from Creative Commons photographers. Every coin carries a credit: the institution and license while you play, and the link to the source page once the coin is revealed. The full list is on the Credits page.
Why doesn't the credit link to the source until I have finished?
Because the source page, and often the file name itself, names the coin. The link appears on the reveal.
Are these real coins?
Yes. Every image is a photograph of an actual coin held in a public collection. There are no illustrations, replicas or reproductions.
How far back do the coins go?
Some 2,500 years: from the first coinage of the Greek world, around 600 BC, to about 1900. The timeline runs from 1000 BC to AD 2000 so that you can rule out time as well as place.
I think the coin, date or photograph is wrong.
On the reveal there is a “Something wrong with this coin? Report it” link with a fixed list of reasons — wrong issuer, wrong date, wrong denomination, wrong metal, wrong or broken image, an image that reveals the answer, not a coin, or a fact that is wrong. Every report is checked, and corrections go into the data for everyone. Reporting never changes your result for the day.
Can I suggest a coin?
Not at the moment. The schedule is built from reviewed, openly licensed collections.
Why isn't a particular state, country, empire or tribe in the list?
The list holds every issuer the game can ask about — any state, country, empire or tribe with at least one reviewed, openly licensed photograph. It grows as collections are added. The map shows all of them.
Guessmint
Is Guessmint free? Is there an app?
Free, in your browser, with no account and nothing to download. There is no app; add the page to your home screen or bookmarks for one-tap access.
Is Guessmint related to Wordle or Worldle?
No. It borrows the daily-puzzle rhythm those games made popular — one puzzle a day, six tries, the same for everyone — and is otherwise its own game, built around real coins and a historical map.
Why “Guessmint”?
A mint is where coins are struck. You guess them. (And collectors will tell you what mint condition is.)
Will there be other languages?
Not at the moment. The game is light on text — the coin, the map and the timeline do most of the talking — so it is playable in any language today.
Does Guessmint use cookies or track me?
There are no accounts, no advertising cookies and no cross-site tracking. Your streak lives in your browser's local storage. We count visits with privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics and standard server logs — enough to know which countries players are in and which devices to test on. The details are in the Privacy page.