What was the silver in a 1964 quarter worth in 1980? When did a copper penny start holding more than a cent of metal? This free dataset answers questions like these for 30 US coins, month by month, from January 1960 through September 2026.
Each row gives a coin's melt value in US dollars, its face value, and how many times face value the metal was worth. The download also includes the monthly gold, silver, platinum, copper, nickel and zinc prices behind the numbers, and the gold price per gram by karat.
801 months · 30 coins · 20,970 rows · CSV
Download all files (zip, 190 KB) →What the data shows
- A 90% silver Washington quarter's melt value first passed 25 cents in July 1967 and has stayed above it every month since January 1972. In January 2026 the silver in one was worth 66.6 times face value.
- Pre-1982 copper pennies have held more than one cent of metal every month since March 2009. In September 2026 the metal in one was worth 4.34 cents.
- The zinc pennies struck since 1982 rose above one cent of metal again in August 2026, at about 1.07 cents in September.
- Copper-nickel Jefferson nickels have held more than five cents of metal every month since December 2020.
Melt value vs. face value, coin by coin
The first month each coin's metal was worth more than its face value, the start of its current run above face, and its value in September 2026, the latest month in the data.
| Coin | Face | Passed face | Above since | Sep 2026 | × face |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan Dollar | $1 | Jul 1967 | Dec 1971 | $49.96 | 50.0× |
| Peace Dollar | $1 | Jul 1967 | Dec 1971 | $49.96 | 50.0× |
| Barber Half Dollar | 50¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $23.37 | 46.7× |
| Walking Liberty Half Dollar | 50¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $23.37 | 46.7× |
| Franklin Half Dollar | 50¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $23.37 | 46.7× |
| Kennedy Half Dollar (1964, 90% silver) | 50¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $23.37 | 46.7× |
| Kennedy Half Dollar (1965-1970, 40% silver) | 50¢ | Jan 1974 | Jan 1974 | $9.55 | 19.1× |
| Barber Quarter | 25¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $11.68 | 46.7× |
| Standing Liberty Quarter | 25¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $11.68 | 46.7× |
| Washington Quarter (1932-1964, 90% silver) | 25¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $11.68 | 46.7× |
| Barber Dime | 10¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $4.67 | 46.7× |
| Mercury Dime | 10¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $4.67 | 46.7× |
| Roosevelt Dime (1946-1964, 90% silver) | 10¢ | Jul 1967 | Jan 1972 | $4.67 | 46.7× |
| Jefferson War Nickel (35% silver) | 5¢ | Dec 1961 | Dec 1961 | $3.64 | 72.7× |
| Eisenhower Dollar (40% silver) | $1 | Jan 1974 | Jan 1974 | $20.41 | 20.4× |
| American Silver Eagle (1 oz) | $1 | From issue | Jan 1986 | $64.60 | 64.6× |
| Gold Dollar | $1 | Before 1960 | Jan 1960 | $208.91 | 208.9× |
| Quarter Eagle ($2.50) | $2.50 | Before 1960 | Jan 1960 | $522.17 | 208.9× |
| Half Eagle ($5) | $5 | Before 1960 | Jan 1960 | $1,044.77 | 209.0× |
| Eagle ($10) | $10 | Before 1960 | Jan 1960 | $2,089.53 | 209.0× |
| Double Eagle ($20) | $20 | Before 1960 | Jan 1960 | $4,178.63 | 208.9× |
| American Gold Eagle (1 oz) | $50 | From issue | Jan 1986 | $4,319.00 | 86.4× |
| American Gold Eagle (1/2 oz) | $25 | From issue | Jan 1986 | $2,159.50 | 86.4× |
| American Gold Eagle (1/4 oz) | $10 | From issue | Jan 1986 | $1,079.75 | 108.0× |
| American Gold Eagle (1/10 oz) | $5 | From issue | Jan 1986 | $431.90 | 86.4× |
| American Gold Buffalo (1 oz) | $50 | From issue | Jan 2006 | $4,319.00 | 86.4× |
| American Platinum Eagle (1 oz) | $100 | From issue | Jan 1997 | $1,784.00 | 17.8× |
| Lincoln Cent (1959-1982, 95% copper) | 1¢ | Nov 1988 | Mar 2009 | 4.34¢ | 4.3× |
| Lincoln Cent (1982-present, copper-plated zinc) | 1¢ | Nov 2006 | Aug 2026 | 1.07¢ | 1.1× |
| Jefferson Nickel (copper-nickel) | 5¢ | May 2006 | Dec 2020 | 7.47¢ | 1.5× |
"Before 1960" means the coin's metal was already worth more than face when the data begins. "From issue" means it was worth more than face from the year the coin was first struck. For a live melt value of any coin today, use the US silver coin melt values and US gold coin melt values pages.
Files
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| us_coin_melt_values_monthly.csv | Coin melt values by month. 20,970 rows, 1.9 MB. |
| coin_melt_milestones.csv | Melt vs. face value milestones. 30 rows, one per coin. |
| metal_prices_monthly.csv | Monthly metal prices. Gold, silver, platinum, copper, nickel, zinc. |
| gold_price_per_gram_by_karat_monthly.csv | Gold price per gram by karat. 24K, 22K, 18K, 14K, 10K. |
| datapackage.json | Column definitions. Frictionless Data Package. |
| README.md | Data card. Methods, limitations, citation. |
The main file has one row per coin per month with these columns: month, coin, primary metal, composition, years minted, fine content in troy ounces, melt value, face value and melt-to-face ratio. Rows start in a coin's first year of issue, so a 1986 Silver Eagle has no rows before 1986. The data card in README.md defines every column.
How the values are calculated
For silver, gold and platinum coins, melt value is the coin's pure metal content in troy ounces times that month's average price per troy ounce. The specifications match the ones the MeltValue calculator uses, such as 0.7734 oz of silver in a Morgan dollar and 0.1808 oz in a 90% quarter.
For pennies and nickels, it is the coin's weight in grams times each metal's share times that month's average price per metric ton. Cents from 1959 to 1982 weigh 3.11 grams at 95% copper and 5% zinc. Cents since 1982 weigh 2.5 grams at 97.5% zinc with copper plating. Jefferson nickels weigh 5 grams at 75% copper and 25% nickel.
Gold per gram by karat is the month's gold price divided by 31.1035, times the karat's purity.
Limitations
Prices are monthly averages in nominal US dollars, not adjusted for inflation, so a single day could be well above or below its month. The World Bank rounds silver to the nearest 10 cents, so the milestone columns only count a month as above face if the coin clears face value even at the low end of that rounding. Melt value counts metal only. It is not a dealer's offer, which is usually lower, and not a coin's collector value, which can be far higher. It is also not the US Mint's cost to make a coin. Gold held at the official $35 price until 1968, and Americans could not legally own gold bullion until 1975. Worn coins hold slightly less metal than the specification.
License and how to cite
The dataset is free to use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You can share and adapt it for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you credit it. If you use it on a web page, please link to this page.
MeltValue.com (2026). US Coin Melt Value History, 1960 to 2026 [Data set]. https://meltvalue.com/data/us-coin-melt-value-history. Metal prices from World Bank Commodity Price Data (CC BY 4.0).
Metal prices come from the World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), edition updated October 2, 2026, which the World Bank publishes under CC BY 4.0. MeltValue.com plans to refresh the dataset as the World Bank adds new months.