Coin value checker
Upload the front and back of your coin. The estimator reads the design, date and mint mark, judges wear, and gives a realistic selling range. Most circulated coins are worth face value or metal value, so it also tells you when a coin is not worth grading.
Example estimate
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera
$190
Usually sells for $120 – $320
Your result appears here.
How to photograph it
Good photos are the biggest single improvement to an estimate. These are the shots that matter most.
- Shoot both sides straight on, filling the frame, on a plain dark background.
- Use soft side light so the date and mint mark are readable without glare.
- Add a close-up of the mint mark area if it is small.
- Never clean the coin before photographing it. Cleaning removes value.
What decides the price
- Date and mint mark
- Low-mintage years and specific mints can multiply value. The same design from a different mint may be worth a fraction.
- Grade
- Wear on the high points decides the grade. A jump from Very Fine to Uncirculated can be worth many times more.
- Metal content
- Most US dimes, quarters and halves dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver and have a melt value floor.
- Errors and varieties
- Doubled dies, off-center strikes and repunched mint marks attract collectors, but need a close photo to confirm.
What this market actually looks like
Almost every coin that passes through a till is worth its face value and nothing more. The United States struck billions of most modern dates, and a circulated example of a common year competes with millions of identical survivors, so the honest answer for the large majority of pocket change is that it is worth exactly what it says on it. That is not a disappointing answer so much as the baseline every other coin is measured against.
Value starts where supply stops. It comes from three things in roughly this order: metal content, a genuinely scarce date-and-mintmark combination, and grade. Metal is the most predictable. Any United States dime, quarter or half dollar dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver, and it tracks the silver spot price rather than collector demand, which puts a floor under it that changes daily. Scarcity is where the large numbers live: a key date such as a 1909-S VDB cent or a 1916-D dime is worth hundreds or thousands in grades where the common date of the same design is worth a dollar.
Grade multiplies whatever the first two give you, and it does so steeply at the top. A common-date Morgan dollar in well-worn condition trades near its silver value; the same coin with full original lustre and no contact marks can be worth many times that. Between those extremes the curve is gentle, which is why the difference between a good coin and a very good coin matters far less than the difference between a very good one and an exceptional one.
How condition is judged here
- Read the date and mintmark first
- The mintmark is a tiny letter — D for Denver, S for San Francisco, no letter for Philadelphia on most issues — and its position moved between designs. Date plus mintmark identifies the issue; without both you are not valuing a specific coin, only a design.
- Wear is read on the high points
- Grading follows where metal rubs away first: the hair above the ear, the cheek, the eagle's breast feathers. A coin with full detail in those spots but scuffing in the fields is worth more than one that looks evenly tidy but has lost its highest relief.
- Lustre is not shine
- Original mint lustre is a cartwheel effect that rotates as you tilt the coin under a light. A cleaned coin is bright but flat and often shows fine hairlines in one direction. Collectors pay for lustre and discount cleaning heavily, so the two must not be confused.
- Slabbed coins are a different product
- A coin certified by PCGS or NGC sells on its stated grade and sells faster, because the buyer is not taking a view on condition. Raw coins of the same quality trade at a discount that reflects the buyer's risk, which is why grading only pays above a certain value.
What costs people money
Most of the value lost in this category is lost before the item is listed, by the owner, with good intentions. These are the four that come up most often.
- Cleaning it
- Polishing, baking soda, vinegar and tumbling all destroy original surfaces permanently and are obvious to anyone who handles coins. A cleaned key date can lose most of its premium.
- Trusting a face-value error story
- Most apparent doubling is machine doubling from a loose die, which is common and carries no premium. True doubled dies are specific, catalogued varieties, and they are rare.
- Grading cheap coins
- Certification costs money per coin plus postage and insurance. Submitting a coin worth less than roughly four or five times the grading fee loses money even when the grade comes back well.
- Selling silver as collectible
- A worn common-date silver coin is a lump of bullion with a picture on it. Pricing it as a collectible means it sits unsold while a dealer would have bought it at melt the same day.
When to bring in a professional
Pay for professional grading when a coin is plausibly a key date, shows no wear at all, or carries a catalogued variety, and when its likely value is several times the grading fee. For an inherited accumulation, a reputable dealer will usually sort it for free to win the business, and that sorting is worth more than any photograph: they will pull the handful that matter and buy the rest at bullion. Avoid anyone who offers a single price for an unsorted box without looking at it.
Common questions
Can the AI tell if my coin is an error coin?
It can flag likely errors such as doubling or an off-center strike when they are visible, but confirming a variety needs magnification. Treat a flagged error as a reason to get the coin checked by a dealer or grading service.
Is it worth getting my coin graded?
Grading by PCGS or NGC costs roughly $20 to $100 per coin with shipping. It usually only pays off when the coin is already worth well over $100 raw, or is a known key date.
Why is my old coin only worth melt value?
Age alone does not make a coin rare. Many old coins were minted in the millions, so heavily worn common dates trade close to their silver or gold content.