Heavily worn coins are challenging, but modern coin scanners look for remaining visible features like overall shape, lettering fragments, and design outlines. Take photos from multiple angles in bright light for the best chance. Even if it gives a probable match, it’s much better than guessing blindly. For circulated and worn pieces, a capable coin scanner still provides useful guidance. coin scanner  – it successfully identified most of my worn coins and helped me understand which ones had any remaining collector interest.