The Process
How Fair Market
Value Works
Every number on FMV Gold can be traced to something real: a live metals price, a cataloged coin, a market premium. This page shows the whole pipeline — no black box.
The whole idea, in one line
Fair Market Value = melt value (metal weight × live spot price) + collector premium (what the market actually pays above metal)
Both halves move: spot prices change through the trading day, and premiums shift with collector demand. FMV Gold tracks both, live — so the number you see is today’s number, not last month’s.
From market data to your number
Live view of the pipeline — the ↗ icons open each part of the site.
The four steps, in detail
Tell us what you own
Three ways in, whatever you have in hand. Search the catalog of 26,000+ coins by name, year, or mint mark. Snap a photo and let Identify recognize the coin for you. Or upload a dealer invoice and we’ll read the line items straight off it.
We price the metal
Every coin’s precise metal content is on file — a Morgan dollar carries 0.7734 troy oz of silver, a Gold Eagle exactly 1 oz of gold. Multiply by the live spot price (refreshed every few minutes from institutional market data, archived in our own database back to 1990) and you have the melt value: the floor no genuine coin can fall below.
We add what collectors actually pay
Metal is only half the story. Grade, mintage rarity, and real auction results determine the premium — what the market pays above melt. We track premiums per coin and re-baseline them when genuine price moves happen, so a common-date coin and a key date are never painted with the same brush.
You watch it all move
Your portfolio revalues continuously as spot and premiums move. Set price alerts — in your dashboard as a member, or by plain email with no account at all. And for context, our Markets page charts every metal back to 1990 with a 30-day statistical outlook computed nightly.
Watch it happen — live, right now
A Morgan Silver Dollar, valued with the numbers on this page at this moment:
Computed from live spot and today’s catalog value when this page loaded — refresh and it may change. A reference valuation, not a dealer buy or sell quote.
Where the numbers come from
Live spot prices
Institutional market data for gold, silver, platinum & palladium, refreshed every few minutes — the same feed dealers watch.
Our own price archive
We store minute, hourly, and daily prices in our own database — daily history back to 1990 — so charts and valuations never depend on anyone else’s memory.
A living coin catalog
26,000+ coins with weights, fineness, mintages and values, synchronized daily.
Honest statistics
The 30-day outlook on our Markets page is a 20,000-run Monte Carlo simulation, recomputed nightly — shown with its full uncertainty, never as a promise.
Common questions
Is Fair Market Value a buy or sell quote?
No. FMV is a reference valuation — the number, and the reasoning behind it. Dealers buy below it and sell above it; knowing the fair middle is exactly what makes you a stronger negotiator on either side of a deal. What you do with the number is entirely up to you.
How current are the values?
Spot prices refresh every few minutes around the clock on trading days, and every coin’s melt value moves with them instantly. Catalog values and premiums synchronize daily. The Markets page and the ticker at the top of every page update live while you watch.
Where do premiums come from?
From the market itself: auction results, dealer asks, grade and mintage data. Premiums are tracked per coin and re-baselined when genuine price movements happen — not guessed from a formula.
What if my coin isn’t in the catalog?
Ask us. The “What’s my coin worth?” page takes a description or photos, and a valuation comes back from FMV’s numismatists. Members can also add free-form items (a bar, a round, an odd lot) to their portfolio and have them valued by metal content.
Do I need an account to use any of this?
The catalog, the Markets page with its full price history, the Rules of Gold directory, and email price alerts are all free with no account. A free account adds the portfolio, watchlists, photo identification, and dashboard alerts.
See your own numbers
Add your first coin in under a minute — or start with a single question: what’s it worth?