How Lustre works
HONEST NUMBERS, LABELLED BY SOURCE
Lustre is a free guide to what American coins are worth. It covers 8 series and 515 year-and-mint issues, with a photo scanner and a collection tracker planned. We would rather show you fewer numbers that we can stand behind than a wall of figures we cannot source.
Three kinds of number
| Number | Where it comes from | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Melt value | Metal content times the current spot price, from a metals price feed updated every 15 minutes | The value of the metal alone. Not an offer, and it ignores any collector premium. |
| Facts | Mintage, composition, weight, diameter, designer: public reference tables, cited on each series | Where sources disagree we say so on the page. |
| Grade values | Lustre editorial estimates, October 2026 | Our judgement of a typical retail range, not market data. |
How the estimates are made
The grade values on every page are labelled Lustre editorial estimate, Oct 2026. We built them from a rarity model: a base price curve for common dates in each series, higher curves for scarcer dates and condition rarities, and explicit tables for the key dates, such as the 1893-S Morgan dollar, the 1916-D Mercury dime, the 1909-S V.D.B. cent and the 1937-D three-legged Buffalo nickel. They assume the metal prices in the table below, so for silver coins in lower grades the figure follows the metal and the row is marked as such.
| Reference spot behind the estimates | Price |
|---|---|
| Silver, per troy ounce | $60.52 |
| Gold, per troy ounce | $4141.80 |
| Copper, per pound | $6.50 |
| Nickel, per pound (editorial) | $7.50 |
These estimates are not a quote from any grading service or price guide. They will be replaced by licensed price data, or by ranges from active public listings, when we have the rights to show them, and we will say which source and date we used.
Photographing and grading a coin
Grading means judging wear and surface. A Good (G-4) coin has heavy wear with the main design outlined; a Fine (F-12) coin shows the main design clearly; a Very Fine (VF-20) coin has moderate wear on the high points; an Extremely Fine (EF-40) coin has light wear; About Uncirculated (AU-50 to AU-58) has only traces of wear; and Mint State (MS-60 to MS-70) has none. Tilt the coin under a single light to see luster, and photograph it on a plain, neutral background without a flash. Do not clean a coin: cleaning almost always lowers its value.
Images and data licensing
Coin photographs are US government work or Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection images, or images released to the public domain by their photographers, as recorded by Wikimedia Commons. The source, licence and credit for each image are listed on its value page. We do not use images or prices from PCGS, NGC, Greysheet or the US Mint, and we do not scrape any of them. Lustre is not affiliated with them.
What Lustre does not do
- We do not buy or sell coins, and nothing on Lustre is an offer. The Exchange is a planned service and is not live.
- We do not provide appraisals. For insurance or sale of valuable coins, use a recognised grading service or a qualified dealer.
- We do not produce downloadable replica models of coins.
Questions
Are Lustre values real market prices?
No. Grade values on Lustre are editorial estimates made by Lustre in October 2026, not market data, an appraisal or an offer to buy. Melt values are calculated from spot metal prices.
Where do the mintage and composition figures come from?
From public reference tables, including Wikipedia and Landofcoins, cross-checked between sources where possible. Every series page lists its sources.
Spotted a wrong mintage or composition? Tell us at the contact address once the domain is live, and we will correct it and note the source.