# US Coin Melt Value History, 1960 to 2026

Monthly melt values for 30 US coins from January 1960 through September 2026, with the metal prices behind them. Each row gives a coin's metal value in US dollars, its face value, and how many times face value the metal was worth that month.

Published by [MeltValue.com](https://meltvalue.com/), a free gold and silver melt value calculator. Metal prices come from the World Bank Commodity Price Data (the Pink Sheet).

Dataset page: https://meltvalue.com/data/us-coin-melt-value-history

## What you can answer with it

- When did a coin's metal become worth more than its face value, and has it stayed there?
- What was a 1964 quarter, a Morgan dollar or a pre-1982 penny worth in metal in any month since 1960?
- How has the gold price per gram for 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K and 24K jewelry moved over time?

A few results from the data:

- 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 it reached 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 copper and zinc in one was worth 4.3 cents.
- The zinc pennies made since 1982 crossed one cent of metal value 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.

## Files

| File | Rows | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| `us_coin_melt_values_monthly.csv` | 20,970 | One row per coin per month: melt value, face value, melt-to-face ratio |
| `coin_melt_milestones.csv` | 30 | One row per coin: first month above face value, continuous run, peak ratio, latest value |
| `metal_prices_monthly.csv` | 801 | Monthly gold, silver, platinum, copper, nickel and zinc prices |
| `gold_price_per_gram_by_karat_monthly.csv` | 801 | Monthly gold price per gram for 24K, 22K, 18K, 14K and 10K |
| `datapackage.json` | | Column definitions in Frictionless Data Package format |

### us_coin_melt_values_monthly.csv

| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| `month` | Month as YYYY-MM |
| `coin` | Coin name, with years or composition where a type changed |
| `primary_metal` | silver, gold, platinum, copper or zinc |
| `composition` | Alloy, for example "90% silver" |
| `years_minted` | Years the coin was struck |
| `fine_content_troy_oz` | Pure precious metal content in troy ounces. Empty for copper, nickel and zinc coins |
| `melt_value_usd` | Metal value in US dollars at that month's average price |
| `face_value_usd` | Face value in US dollars |
| `melt_to_face_ratio` | `melt_value_usd` divided by `face_value_usd` |

Rows start in the coin's first year of issue, or January 1960 for older coins, so a 1986 Silver Eagle has no rows before 1986.

## How the values are calculated

Precious metal coins: fine content in troy ounces × the month's average spot price per troy ounce.

Copper, nickel and zinc coins: coin weight in grams × each metal's share × the month's average price per metric ton ÷ 1,000,000. The specifications are 3.11 g at 95% copper and 5% zinc for 1959 to 1982 cents, 2.5 g at 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper for cents since 1982, and 5.0 g at 75% copper and 25% nickel for Jefferson nickels.

Gold per gram by karat: monthly gold price ÷ 31.1035 × purity (0.999, 0.9167, 0.75, 0.5833 and 0.4167).

Milestones: the World Bank rounds silver prices to the nearest $0.10 and the other metals to the nearest $1. In `coin_melt_milestones.csv`, a month counts as above face value only if the coin's metal clears face value even at the lowest price that rounding allows. Without this, 1960s silver at "$1.30" would wrongly put silver dollars above face years before it happened.

## Limitations

- Silver prices are rounded to the nearest $0.10 in the source, which matters most in the 1960s when silver was near $1.30. Gold, platinum, copper, nickel and zinc are rounded to the nearest $1.
- Prices are monthly averages in nominal US dollars. They are not adjusted for inflation, and a single day could be well above or below the month's average.
- Melt value is metal content only. It is not what a dealer pays, which is usually less, and not the coin's collector value, which can be far more. It is also not the US Mint's cost to make a coin, which includes fabrication and distribution.
- The gold price was fixed at $35 until 1968 and private ownership of gold bullion was not legal in the US until 1975, so early gold coin values reflect the official price.
- Coin specifications are nominal. Worn coins hold slightly less metal.

## Source and license

Metal prices: World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), monthly prices in nominal US dollars, edition updated October 2, 2026. https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/commodity-markets. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

This dataset is licensed under the [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) (CC BY 4.0). You can share and adapt it for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you credit it.

## How to cite

> 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).

When you use it on a web page, please link to https://meltvalue.com/data/us-coin-melt-value-history.

## Updates

MeltValue.com plans to refresh this dataset when the World Bank publishes new monthly prices.