Nickels and dimes
Nickel value: what is my five-cent piece worth?
Type the year, choose the mint mark and, for 1942, the metal: the tool returns the number struck, the metal inside and its value now.
Metal value of one coin
7.5¢
| Design | Jefferson nickel |
| Mint mark on the coin | none, or a large P on wartime coins |
| Struck at this mint | 107,719,200 |
| Mintage band | High mintage (20 to 200 million) |
| Metal inside | copper 3.75 g, nickel 1.25 g |
| Face value | 5.0¢ |
- Pieces made in the calendar year; for most years this is also the date on the coin.
Silver $53.94 per troy oz, copper $6.61 per lb (last price read, October 27, 2026). A collector may pay more than metal value for a scarce date or a fine coin; this tool does not give a dealer price.
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A nickel is worth more as metal than as money: its 5.00 grams of 75% copper and 25% nickel, the alloy given in the Mint’s coin specifications, hold about 7.5¢ at the prices read on October 27, 2026. Melting it is still banned under 31 CFR Part 82, so for an ordinary nickel that figure is a curiosity. The exceptions are the wartime nickels struck from October 1, 1942 to December 31, 1945 in an alloy of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese: each holds 0.0563 troy ounce of silver, about $3.08 at the silver price of the day, and the regulations exempt them from the melting ban. They are easy to spot by the large mint mark above Monticello on the back. Scarcity by number is concentrated in Buffalo nickels from branch mints and a few Jefferson dates, with the lowest figures in the Bureau of the Mint tables at 1926-S (970,000), 1931-S (1,200,000), 1924-S (1,437,000), 1915-S (1,505,000).
Metal in ordinary nickels
Melt value of 40 coins
$3.00
| One coin | 7.5¢ |
| Face value | $2 |
Melting nickels is banned by 31 CFR Part 82: this shows the metal, not something you may cash in. At copper $6.61 per lb (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Three designs, two metals
The five-cent pieces you are likely to find belong to two designs. The Buffalo nickel, with a bison on the back, ran from 1913 to 1938. The Jefferson nickel replaced it in 1938, part of the move the Mint’s history of circulating coins describes as presidents taking over from Liberty: the cent in 1909, the quarter in 1932, the nickel in 1938. Both 1913 and 1938 mix two designs in the Mint’s tables, because coins were counted by calendar year, and the checker warns you.
The metal stayed the same throughout, 75% copper and 25% nickel at 5.00 grams, with one exception. From October 1, 1942 to December 31, 1945, nickel was removed from the coin during World War II, as the Mint’s page on mint marks recalls, and replaced by a mix of copper, silver and manganese.
| Coin | Weight | Metal | Metal value today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickel, regular alloy | 5.00 g | 75% copper, 25% nickel | 7.5¢ |
| Wartime nickel, 1942 to 1945 | 5.00 g | 56% copper, 35% silver, 9% manganese | $3.08 |
How many were struck
The Bureau of the Mint tables give the number struck at each mint for every year to 1980, and the Mint’s production reports give rounded figures for 2010 to 2012 and 2016 to 2023. A few figures show the range:
| Year | Philadelphia | Denver | San Francisco |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1926 | 44,693,000 | 5,638,000 | 970,000 |
| 1938 | 19,515,365 | 12,396,000 | 4,105,000 |
| 1950 | 9,847,386 | 2,630,030 | no figure |
| 1964 | 1,028,622,762 | 1,787,297,160 | no figure |
| 1979 | 463,188,000 | 325,867,672 | 3,677,175 |
The lowest figures of all come from San Francisco Buffalo nickels of the 1910s to the early 1930s, with the 1950-D the lowest Jefferson figure in the tables. The Buffalo nickel page and the Jefferson nickel page rank each series.
Where to find the mint mark
On Buffalo nickels the mark sits on the back, under the words FIVE CENTS. On Jefferson nickels before 1965 it sits on the back to the right of Monticello, except on wartime coins, where a large letter appears above the dome and Philadelphia used a P for the first time. After the three years without marks, the letter moved to the front in 1968, and Philadelphia nickels show a P from 1980. The mint marks guide covers every coin.
Recent nickels
Nickels of the last fifteen years are made in the hundreds of millions at each of Philadelphia and Denver. The Mint’s production reports give 464,640,000 at Philadelphia and 558,960,000 at Denver for 2012, and 692,600,000 and 734,800,000 for 2023, figures the Mint publishes in millions. No recent date is scarce by number, and their metal is the same copper and nickel as any regular nickel since 1946. What sets a modern nickel apart, when anything does, is a striking error or a coin from a collector set, and those are counted apart or not at all.
So the order of work for any nickel is the same: read the date and the letter, check whether it falls in the wartime years, then look up the number struck in the tool at the top of this page.
Metal you may not cash, except silver
The small tool below shows the metal in a stack of ordinary nickels. The rules in 31 CFR Part 82 forbid melting, treating or exporting five-cent coins with fines up to $10,000, but they specifically exempt nickels dated 1942 to 1945 made of copper, silver and manganese. Those wartime pieces are the only nickels you may legally sell for their metal, and the melt value calculator prices any number of them at the silver price of the moment.