MEASURED · 8 OCTOBER 2026

How much is a nickel worth? What the metal in every year’s nickel is worth

Every nickel is worth five cents as money. Almost every one is made of the same metal, 75% copper and 25% nickel, as it has been since 1866, and that metal is now worth more than the coin. The exception is the wartime nickel of 1942 to 1945, which contains silver. Below: what the metal in each is worth, when it passed five cents, which nickels are silver, and the bill that would change what the nickel is made of.

The short answer

Copper and nickel at the World Bank’s September 2026 averages: $14,474 and $16,324 a metric ton. That copper price is the highest monthly average since the series began in 1960; every year of it is in copper price per pound. Silver at the London (LBMA) price of $60.865 an ounce on 29 September 2026. Collector values are not measured here.

Nickel value by year

Each nickel is worth five cents as money whatever its metal. The war nickel’s figure is its silver alone; its 2.8 g of copper adds 4.0¢ and its manganese is not priced. A worn coin holds slightly less metal than a new one. Collector premiums are not included.

How to tell a silver nickel

• Look above the building on the back. Every war nickel carries a large P, D or S mint mark above the dome of Monticello. The P was the first time the Philadelphia Mint’s mark had appeared on a US coin.
• Check 1942 closely. The silver alloy began in October 1942, so a 1942 nickel is silver only if it has the large mark above the dome. A 1942 with no mark there is the ordinary alloy.
• Anywhere else, it is not silver. From 1938 to 1964 the mint mark sits to the right of Monticello; 1965 to 1967 nickels have none; from 1968 it is on the front, by the date. None of those are silver.
• Weight does not help. Both alloys weigh 5 g, so a scale cannot tell them apart. The mark and the date are the test.

When a nickel’s metal passed five cents

On the World Bank’s monthly averages, which start in 1960, the copper and nickel in a nickel were first worth five cents or more in May 2006. Before that the highest it had reached was 4.64¢, in April 2006. In December 2006 the Mint made melting and exporting pennies and nickels illegal, as Numismatic News reported; the rule still stands.

The record came in May 2007: 9.40¢, 1.88 times face, when nickel averaged $52,179 a ton. By December 2008 the metal was down to 2.36¢. In all, the metal has been worth five cents or more in 131 of the 801 months since 1960, in 9 separate stretches. The current one is the longest: every month since December 2020, 70 months in a row.

The metal in a nickel since 1960

Monthly averages (World Bank), so single days went further. Log scale, so equal heights are equal percentage moves.

What a nickel’s metal was worth, year by year

December averages, except the last row (September 2026 average). 3.75 g of copper and 1.25 g of nickel per coin.

Why a nickel costs 13 cents to make

The Mint’s annual reports put the cost of making and distributing one nickel at 11.54 cents in fiscal 2023, 13.78 cents in 2024 and 13.31 cents in 2025, as Coin World reported. Set against the raw metal over the same fiscal years, October to September:

So even if the metal were free, making and shipping a nickel would cost more than five cents. The raw metal figure is the World Bank average, not what the Mint actually paid for its metal, so the split is approximate.

The bill that would change the nickel

The Common Cents Act passed the House by voice vote on 14 September 2026, as CoinWeek reported, and the Senate by voice vote on 28 September, sending it to the President, according to the Associated Press. Besides directing the government to stop making pennies and letting stores round cash totals to the nearest five cents, it would allow a nickel with a zinc core and an outer layer of nickel, weighing 4 to 6 grams, once testing shows it cuts costs with little disruption to coin machines.

The reason is the price list. In September 2026 zinc averaged $4,021 a ton, against $14,474 for copper and $16,324 for nickel. The bill does not fix the new coin’s exact make-up, so its metal value cannot be measured yet.

Why you cannot cash in the metal

A pound of nickels is about 90.7 coins: $4.54 as money and $6.78 as metal at September 2026 prices. A $2 roll of 40 holds $2.99 of metal, and 2,000 nickels, $100 face and 10 kg, hold $149.37.

None of that can be sold as scrap. Treasury regulation 31 CFR 82.1 says no person shall export, melt or treat any five-cent or one-cent coin of the United States. Knowingly breaking it can cost up to $10,000 and five years in prison, under 31 U.S.C. 5111(d). The exceptions in 82.2 are narrow, with one that matters here: paragraph (d) exempts the 1942-1945 nickels made of copper, silver and manganese. That is why war nickels trade as silver and ordinary nickels trade as five cents.

Measured by US consumer prices, five cents in 1960 bought what 56.6¢ buys in August 2026, and five cents in 1980 what 20.3¢ buys.

Nickels worth more than their metal

• War nickels. Worth their silver, $3.43 at the 29 September 2026 price, more in top condition. At the record silver price of 29 January 2026 the silver was worth $6.67.
• Scarce dates, mint marks and errors. Some Buffalo and Liberty Head dates, and any date in top condition. A grading service’s price guide, such as PCGS or NGC, lists them. We did not measure collector values.
• Everything else is five cents. A common nickel in ordinary condition is worth its face to a bank. The metal figures above say what it is made of, not what anyone will pay.

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

How we measured it

Prices: World Bank Pink Sheet monthly averages for copper, nickel and zinc in US dollars a metric ton, January 1960 to September 2026; the LBMA silver price to 29 September 2026; BLS CPI-U to August 2026. Metal content: 5 g at 75% copper and 25% nickel (31 U.S.C. 5112), so 3.75 g of copper and 1.25 g of nickel; the war nickel 5 g at 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese, 0.0563 troy ounces of silver. Face-value line: each month’s copper and nickel averages give that month’s metal value, compared with five cents. Fiscal years: the Mint’s, October to September, the average of the twelve monthly values.

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