AboutMyCoinHow much is my coin worth?
A coin is worth whichever is higher: the metal in it, or what a collector will pay for that date, mint mark and condition. The metal is arithmetic you can settle in a minute, and the collector premium comes from three things printed on the coin or visible on its surface.
The metal floor
Every coin has a floor, and the floor is what the metal in it would fetch as metal. The sum is one multiplication: the coin’s metal content in troy ounces times the spot price of that metal. The working is on the coin’s melt value page.
For United States coinage the floor only matters on silver and gold. A dime, quarter or half dollar dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver. The same denominations dated 1965 or later are copper-nickel clad, and the metal in them is worth a fraction of what the coin spends for.
The date and the mint mark
Two coins that look identical can differ in value by a factor of a thousand, and what separates them is printed on the coin. A series is struck at several mints in several years, some of those combinations were struck in small numbers, and those are the ones worth money. Nothing about the design differs.
The mint is identified by a single letter, and its position moved over the life of most series, which is why the identification checklist on every coin page here says where to look. If the letters mean nothing to you yet, start with what the letters on a coin mean.
Condition
On a common date, condition is the whole of the collector premium: a worn example is worth its metal and an unworn one is worth several times that. On a scarce date, condition multiplies a number that was already large. Either way the question is the same one, and it is answered in does condition affect a coin’s value.
Condition is judged on a 70-point scale that the trade agrees on, and the grade a dealer gives your coin is the grade the price guides are keyed to. What coin grading is explains the scale and who issues it.
What nobody pays extra for
Age on its own is not value, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the hobby: a Roman bronze can be bought for the price of a sandwich and a 1955 cent cannot. The reason is survival, not antiquity, and it is set out in are old coins worth money.
Nor does a shine help. Cleaning a coin removes original surface and the trade can see it from across a table, which is why cleaning reduces a coin’s value rather than raising it. Whatever you decide about the coin, decide it before you touch it with anything.
Turning value into an offer
A value is a benchmark and an offer is a transaction, and they are never the same number. Anybody buying has to resell, so they buy below what the coin is worth; the gap is the business. What that means in practice is covered in how much can I sell my coin for and where to sell coins.
Look your coin up in the coin value catalogue to get the metal figure and the identification checklist for its series, then judge any offer against that. An offer you cannot explain the gap in is an offer to walk away from.
Related questions
More on what a coin is worth
Four things set what a coin is worth, and the year stamped on the front is only one of them.
What a Coin Is Worth collects every question on this topic in one place.
Not an appraisal. AboutMyCoin estimates from published specifications and does not authenticate or grade coins.