MEASURED · 14 OCTOBER 2026

How much is a dollar coin worth? Susan B. Anthony, Eisenhower and Sacagawea dollars priced

Every US dollar coin made for circulation since 1971 is worth exactly a dollar, and none of them holds silver or gold. The 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar people look up most holds 11.85¢ of copper and nickel. One kind is worth far more than face: the 40% silver Eisenhower dollar the Mint sold to collectors, now $19.24 of silver. Below: what each dollar coin is made of and worth, how to tell the silver Ike, what that coin was worth against its 1971 price, and why so few dollar coins turn up in change.

The short answer

Silver at the London (LBMA) price of $60.865 an ounce on 29 September 2026; the September 2026 average was $64.60, which puts a silver Ike at $20.42. Copper, nickel and zinc at the World Bank’s September 2026 averages. The gold-coloured dollars also hold 0.2835 g of manganese, which the World Bank does not price: manganese would have to cost $35 a kilogram to add one cent. Collector values are not measured here.

Which dollar coins are silver

Every one of these coins is worth $1 as money. Older dollars are different: Morgan and Peace silver dollars (1878-1935) are 90% silver and priced in how much is a silver dollar worth?, and the gold dollars of 1849-1889 in how much is a gold coin worth? The American Silver Eagle, a one-ounce silver bullion coin with a $1 face since 1986, and the commemorative silver dollars are not priced here; they are worth their silver. Collector premiums are not included.

How to tell a silver Eisenhower dollar

• Size first. The Eisenhower dollar is the big one, 38.1 mm across. The Susan B. Anthony and the gold-coloured dollars are 26.5 mm and contain no silver, whatever their date.
• Find the mint mark, beneath Eisenhower’s bust. Coins with no letter (Philadelphia) or a D (Denver) are copper-nickel. Only San Francisco, S, struck the silver ones.
• Check the date. A 1971-S or 1972-S is silver. From 1973 San Francisco also struck copper-nickel proofs for the regular proof sets, so on a 1973-S, 1974-S or 1776-1976-S the S alone does not settle it.
• Weigh it. A 40% silver Ike weighs about 24.6 g, a copper-nickel one 22.68 g. A kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 g tells them apart.

How much is an Eisenhower dollar worth?

The Eisenhower dollar was struck from 1971 to 1978, both sides by the Mint’s chief engraver Frank Gasparro, with a reverse based on the Apollo 11 mission patch: an eagle landing on the Moon. It is, in Wikipedia’s words, the only large-size US dollar coin whose circulation strikes contained no silver. Those are copper-nickel layers on a copper core, 22.68 g, and hold 33.18¢ of metal at September 2026 prices: a dollar as money. The 1973 and 1973-D were sold only in mint sets. There are no dollars dated 1975; coins struck in 1975 and 1976 carry the double date 1776-1976.

The silver ones are 40% silver overall and hold 0.3161 troy ounces: $19.24 at the 29 September 2026 London price, and $37.44 at the record fix of 29 January 2026. It takes about 3.16 of them to make a troy ounce of silver. Two varieties are named on Wikipedia: the 1972 Philadelphia dollar comes in three reverse types, told apart by how the Earth looks, and some 1971-S proofs are the “peg leg”, with no serif on the R of LIBERTY. Collectors pay more for them; we did not measure how much.

The silver Ike against its 1971 price

In 1971 the Mint sold the 1971-S silver dollar for $3 uncirculated (the “Blue Ike”) and $10 as a proof (the “Brown Ike”). Silver averaged $1.54 an ounce that year, so the coin held 48.7¢ of silver: buyers paid about 6 times its metal for the uncirculated coin.

Its silver first passed $1 on the London fix of 18 December 1973, and the last fix below $1 was the next day, 19 December 1973, at $3.108. It first reached the $3 issue price on 18 July 1979, at $9.564 an ounce, and the last London fix below it was 5 December 2008, at $9.46; it has been above on all 4,498 fixes since. The $10 proof price took longer: first passed on 31 December 1979 ($32.20), and above on every fix only since 11 April 2025, the last one below, at $31.27.

Measured against prices, the coin has not kept up. By US consumer prices, $3 in 1971 is $24.82 in August 2026 dollars, and $10 is $82.73. The uncirculated coin’s silver, $19.24, is 6.4 times what it cost but less than its price in today’s money. Month by month, its silver was worth the $3 price in that month’s dollars in only 9 of the 668 months since January 1971: December 1979 to March 1980, September and October 1980 and January to March 2026.

How much is a Susan B. Anthony dollar worth?

A dollar. The Susan B. Anthony dollar, also by Gasparro, was struck from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1999. It is 8.1 g of copper-nickel on a copper core, the same metal as a quarter, and holds 11.85¢ of copper and nickel at September 2026 prices. It has no silver, though many people search for a “1979 Susan B. Anthony silver dollar”.

One reason it failed is that people mistook it for a quarter: only slightly larger and the same colour, according to Wikipedia. The Mint struck 757,813,744 dated 1979 for circulation, and by 1981 a surplus of 520 million sat in government storage. The 1981 coins were struck only for collectors. Some varieties command premiums, such as the 1979-P “wide rim” or “near date”, with the date close to the rim, and the 1981-S Type Two proof. A grading service’s price guide, such as PCGS or NGC, lists them; we did not measure collector values.

Sacagawea, Presidential and the other gold-coloured dollars

The Sacagawea dollar replaced it in 2000: the same 8.1 g and size, but in manganese brass, 77% copper, 12% zinc, 7% manganese and 4% nickel over a copper core, to give it a gold colour. It holds no gold. Its copper, zinc and nickel were worth 10.84¢ at September 2026 prices, 10.38¢ of it copper. Glenna Goodacre designed the front; from 2009 the back carries Native American designs. Presidential dollars (2007-2016 and 2020) and American Innovation dollars (2018-2032) are the same metal and worth the same. Some 2007 Washington Presidential dollars, about 50,000, left the Mint without their edge lettering, according to Wikipedia.

Why you rarely get a dollar coin in change

The stockpiles tell the story. The Eisenhower dollar circulated little except around Nevada casinos. The Susan B. Anthony left 520 million in storage by 1981. In December 2009 a Federal Reserve official said 857 million dollar coins sat in government vaults, about twelve years of demand. On 13 December 2011, with 1.4 billion stockpiled, the Treasury stopped striking Presidential dollars for circulation. At the end of 2022 the stockpile was still 888 million, expected to last until about 2038. Since 2012 the Sacagawea and Native American dollars have been made only for collectors, and the American Innovation dollars have never been released for circulation: the Mint sells them in rolls and bags at a premium. The dollar coins that do turn up in change come out of that shrinking stockpile, and each one spends as a dollar.

What the metal in a dollar coin was worth, 1971 to today

The copper and nickel in a dollar coin have never come close to its face. The circulating Eisenhower dollar held 2.71¢ of metal in December 1971 and holds 33.18¢ now, its highest month by World Bank averages since 1971. The small dollars are at their highest too: 11.85¢ for the Susan B. Anthony and 10.84¢ for the golden dollars, in September 2026.

Each December’s World Bank average; the last row is September 2026. The Susan B. Anthony column starts in 1979 and the golden dollar in 2000, the years they were first struck. The golden dollar leaves out its manganese.

Spending, selling or keeping dollar coins

A dollar coin is legal tender for a dollar. Silver Eisenhower dollars are usually bought and sold for their silver; scarce dates and coins in top condition can sell for more. The federal melting ban, 31 CFR 82.1, covers only five-cent and one-cent coins. Measured by US consumer prices, a dollar of 1971 bought what $8.27 buys in August 2026, a dollar of 1979 $4.62 and a dollar of 2000 $1.95.

The same arithmetic for the other coins is in how much is a penny worth?, how much is a nickel worth?, how much is a dime worth?, how much is a silver quarter worth?, how much is a half dollar worth? and how much is a silver dollar worth? This page is a measurement, not a forecast or personal advice.

How we measured it

Prices: the LBMA silver price to 29 September 2026; World Bank Pink Sheet monthly averages for silver, copper, nickel and zinc, December 1971 to September 2026; BLS CPI-U to August 2026. The silver Ike’s crossings of $1, $3 and $10 are read on the daily London fixes, because the World Bank reports silver only to the nearest 10 cents. Metal content: the 40% silver Eisenhower dollar holds 0.3161 troy ounces of silver (NGC’s melt-value figure, as on our silver dollar page). Copper-nickel Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony dollars: 22.68 g and 8.1 g at 8.33% nickel, the rest copper. Gold-coloured dollars: 8.1 g at 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese and 2% nickel (Wikipedia, “Sacagawea dollar”). Issue prices, mintages, varieties and stockpile figures are from the Wikipedia articles linked above. Today’s money: each year’s average CPI-U against August 2026.

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