Most modern dollar coins are worth exactly one dollar — a circulated Susan B. Anthony, Eisenhower, Sacagawea, or Presidential dollar trades at face value or a small premium over it. The exceptions are specific, checkable varieties: the 1979-P Wide Rim Anthony dollar, the 40% silver Eisenhower issues, the Cheerios Sacagawea dollar, and Presidential dollars struck without their edge lettering.
This roundup is the map. Each series gets the short answer here, with a link to the full date-by-date guide for that coin.
Susan B. Anthony dollars (1979–1981, 1999)
The small-size dollar that launched the modern era is also the most hoarded coin in America — and ordinary examples are worth $1. Billions were saved by people who assumed rarity would follow; it never did for the common dates. Two are genuinely worth checking for: the 1979-P Wide Rim (also called Near Date, because the date sits close to a noticeably thicker rim), worth a real premium over face, and the 1981-S Type 2 proof with its clear, flat “Clear S” mintmark. Everything else, circulated, spends. Full breakdown: Susan B. Anthony dollar value, date by date.
Eisenhower dollars (1971–1978)
The big clad Ike dollar splits in two. Copper-nickel circulation strikes are worth face to a couple of dollars uncirculated. The 40% silver issues — the San Francisco uncirculated and proof strikes sold to collectors in blue and brown Mint packaging (“Blue Ikes” and “Brown Ikes”), including the 1976 Bicentennial silver issues — carry actual silver value and are the ones worth pulling from a pile. Variety hunters also check 1972 dollars for the scarcer Type 2 reverse. Full breakdown: Eisenhower dollar value, including the silver issues. We stock the silver version when the question is metal, not variety: the 40% silver Ike dollar.
Sacagawea dollars (2000– )
The golden-colored dollar that followed the Anthony is worth face value in every ordinary form — including the Native American dollars struck with rotating reverses since 2009. The series hides the most famous modern variety of all: the 2000-P Cheerios dollar, handed out in cereal boxes with boldly detailed tail feathers on the eagle, worth hundreds of dollars against a $1 lookalike. A 2000-P “Wounded Eagle” die variety and the extraordinary 2000-P mule — a Sacagawea reverse paired with a Washington quarter obverse — round out the checkables. Full breakdown: Sacagawea dollar value, from Cheerios to the mule.
Presidential dollars (2007–2016): check the edge
Presidential dollars, issued four a year in order of service from Washington onward, are worth face value in circulation condition — full stop. This series pays its rent in errors, and every one of them lives on the coin’s edge, where the date, mintmark, and mottoes were stamped instead of the faces.
- Missing edge lettering (“godless dollars”): some 2007 Washington dollars — and smaller numbers of Adams dollars — left the Philadelphia Mint with completely smooth edges: no date, no mintmark, no IN GOD WE TRUST. These are the Presidential dollars with real collector value, and they are still findable because most people never look at an edge.
- Doubled or overlapping edge lettering: letters struck twice or jumbled from a second pass. Worth a modest premium and worth a second look with a loupe.
- Proofs and satin-finish sets: collector-packaged Presidential dollars trade over face in original Mint packaging; loose proofs that have been spent are face value again.
The working habit for this whole series: hold the coin by its faces and read the edge of every Presidential dollar that crosses your palm. It takes five seconds, and it is the only place the money hides.
Which of these dollars are silver?
Different question, different answer: composition is covered in our guide to which dollar coins are silver — the short version is that among modern dollars only the 40% silver Eisenhower issues qualify, while the Anthony, Sacagawea, and Presidential dollars contain no silver at all. And if your dollar is a big silver one from before 1935, it is not a modern dollar at all: see Morgan dollar value and Peace dollar value instead.
FAQ
Is a 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar worth anything?
Usually one dollar. The exception from 1979 is the Philadelphia Wide Rim variety, where the date nearly touches a visibly thicker rim — compare yours against a normal 1979-P before spending it.
Are Presidential dollar coins worth keeping?
Keep the ones with edge problems: missing or doubled edge lettering. Normal Presidential dollars in circulation condition are worth a dollar each and make fine spenders.
How do I know if my Eisenhower dollar is silver?
Silver Ikes are San Francisco-mint collector issues from 1971–1976 in Mint packaging; the copper-nickel circulation strikes show a copper stripe on the edge. The full test is in the Eisenhower guide linked above.