Mario (Series)

The Mario series of games by Nintendo is well known as the founder of coins. The yellow circles are iconic, and well known. They serve various roles:


 * Coins increase the score meter by 200 in the games that feature one.
 * Reaching 100 coins grants the player a 1-UP.

The Mario series features many different types of coins.

Coins (Standard)
Most Mario games feature the iconic gold coins.

Star bits are NOT coins. Defeating a goomba by jumping on them will grant you coins, while using the spin attack will grant you star bits. This proves that the two are different from one another.

Trivia

 * Mario is the first ever video game to include coins.
 * Mario is also the franchise with by far the most number of coins, spanning dozens of Mario games with hundreds of ways to collect them.
 * In Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, the titular "treasure" is heavily implied, if not down right confirmed in game, to be coins.
 * Although it is still up for debate which Mario game has the most coins, it's probably New Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * Considering the size of a coin relative to Mario, it can be safely assumed that a falling coin could potentially cause bruising, fracturing, spraining, concussions and possibly even death (if dropped from high enough).