1801–2026 · Mintages · Grade ladders

Nickel Value by Year

Every nickel year from 1801–2026, with mintages and what each is worth. 3 years are covered in full so far — the rest are being added.

Prices updated: September 2, 2026

About nickel values

This page collects every nickel we have priced, year by year. The table above is the short answer: find your date, read across for the mintage and the range, and follow the year for the full breakdown by mint mark and any varieties recorded for that date — plus grade-by-grade PCGS values where they have been added. The plan covers 1801–2026; 3 years are priced so far, and the rest are being added.

What decides the price

Two things decide what a nickel is worth, and neither is the year on its own. The first is condition: an ordinary circulated example of almost any date runs from about $0.06, because these coins were made in the hundreds of millions and most of them were spent. The second is the mint mark, the small letter beside the date — no letter means Philadelphia, D means Denver, S means San Francisco, and the mints did not strike equal numbers. Where those two factors line up badly for a date, the price moves — and the year pages show by how much.

The top of the market

The top of this market is a long way from pocket change. The highest recorded public sale among the dates priced here is $1,260, for a 2007 nickel at Heritage Auctions. That is an auction result, not a guide value: one coin, one day, in front of whoever was bidding. It is worth knowing about because it shows what the ceiling looks like, and worth keeping in proportion because the overwhelming majority of nickels from any year are worth what the table says.

Varieties

None of the dates priced here carry a catalogued variety, which is normal for recent coinage: varieties are found and recorded over decades, and modern dates simply have not been looked at as hard as older ones. That does not mean errors do not exist on these coins — off-centre strikes, clipped planchets and die cracks turn up in any year — only that no variety yet defines the date itself.

Designs in this series

The nickel has not looked the same throughout. Among the dates priced here the designs are: 5 Cents "Jefferson Nickel" (Westward Journey, Bison) (2005); 5 Cents "Jefferson Nickel" (Westward Journey, Ocean View) (2005); 5 Cents "Jefferson Nickel" (2nd portrait, Return to Monticello) (2006–2007). A change of design is worth noticing because it usually resets what collectors chase: the first year of a new type is saved in quantity, the last year of an old one often is not, and prices follow that behaviour more closely than they follow the mintage figures.

Which mints struck it

Across the years on this page the mints contributed unevenly: Denver 2,334,240,000, Philadelphia 2,059,200,000. The letter is the first thing to check on any coin you are holding, and the one detail people most often overlook — a missing letter is not a missing coin, it means Philadelphia, which struck most of the circulating supply for most of the twentieth century.

How to read the prices

A word on the numbers, because two different kinds of price get mixed up constantly. Values for worn coins are retail estimates for raw, ungraded pieces — what a collector might pay, not what a dealer will give you. A dealer buying from you typically offers 50–80% of that. Values in the top grades come from the PCGS price guide and apply to certified coins, sealed in a holder with a grade on the label. The gap between the two is not a markup: it is the cost and the risk of getting a coin graded, and for most dates on this page that cost is more than the coin is worth.

Where to spend attention

If you are scanning the table for where to spend attention, the dates that reach highest in certified grades are 2005 ($1,650), 2006 ($45), 2007 ($22). Those are guide values for coins in a holder at the very top of the scale, not what a worn example brings, and each of them is reached by a handful of coins out of enormous mintages. The practical reading is not «this date is valuable» but «on this date, condition is worth checking carefully before you spend it».

Checking your coin

Whatever the year, the routine is the same and takes under a minute. Read the date. Find the mint mark and note whether there is one. Look at the surface under a lamp, tilting the coin: original coins have a soft even lustre, cleaned coins show fine parallel lines, and a coin that has been in a pocket for years shows flattened high points. Then check the year page for varieties, because that is the one thing you cannot judge by eye without knowing what to look for.

If you have a nickel in front of you, start with the date and the mint mark, then look at the surface. Do not clean it — cleaning strips the original surface, graders label the coin as cleaned, and the value drops sharply and permanently. It is the most common and most expensive mistake a beginner makes, and it cannot be undone. Once you know what you have, the year page will tell you whether it is worth doing anything else about it.

Designs in this series

Value chart by year

Worn values are retail estimates for raw coins. Top-grade values come from the PCGS price guide for certified examples where PCGS data is in — otherwise the column shows the highest circulated price on record for that date. Follow a year for the full breakdown by mint mark.