Money Weight Calculator

Coin weight ＝ Σ (pieces of a denomination × the weight of that denomination)　｜　Note weight ＝ notes × 1 gram　｜　Total weight ＝ note weight ＋ coin weight　｜　Pieces ＝ every count added up

coin001zinc

Copper-plated zinc one-cent pieces, the kind struck from 1983 onward. Each one weighs 2.50 grams, which is what the mint has actually been making since the composition changed

coin001bronze

Bronze one-cent pieces, the kind struck up to 1982. Each one weighs 3.11 grams, the weight the statute prescribes and the weight the Treasury's redemption rate was derived from, so the same ten coins are 6.1 grams heavier in the older metal

coin005

Five-cent pieces at 5 grams each. The nickel is the one coin in this list whose statutory weight is a round number, which makes it the easiest line to check by hand

coin010

Dime pieces at 2.268 grams each. This is why the panel reports hundredths of a gram: a dime's weight is not a round figure, and rounding it to 2.27 before multiplying would put every dime total slightly out

coin025

Quarter pieces at 5.67 grams each. Four of them weigh 22.68 grams, a shade under the 22.8 that rounding the coin to 5.7 first would give you

coin050

Half-dollar pieces at 11.34 grams each, the heaviest coin here and the reason a modest stack of them is what usually tips a purse over a kilogram

notes

How many banknotes, of any denomination, counted together. A note weighs about one gram whether it is a one or a hundred, so this is a count of pieces rather than a value — it is also why the weight of a large sum in hundreds is almost entirely a question of how many of them there are

coinsWeight

The six coin lines added up, rounded once to hundredths of a gram at the end rather than line by line

notesWeight

The note count in grams, one gram apiece. It is the smallest of the three weight figures in almost every pile, which is worth knowing before you decide a suitcase of cash would be heavy to carry

moneyWeight

The whole pile: note weight plus coin weight. It is the headline figure, and the two subtotals above it add up to it exactly, so the addition can be checked against the numbers printed on the panel

totalPieces

Every count added up, coins and notes together. A pile of coins and a pile of notes of the same weight are very different objects, and this is the figure that separates them

Use it when the question is how heavy a sum of money is rather than what it is worth: a coin jar you are about to carry to the bank, a collection being packed and posted, a piggy bank whose contents you have already counted, or a shipping estimate that needs a kilogram figure per coin. Five of the six coin weights come from the statute that fixes the specifications of United States coins, and the sixth, the copper-plated zinc one-cent weight, comes from the Treasury rule that publishes both one-cent figures side by side, so the figures are the government's own rather than a rounded figure from a coin catalogue. If you want the value of the pile instead, or you are counting mixed currency whose face value you do not yet know, use the money counter; if you are converting between currencies at a rate you supply, use the currency converter. Neither of those asks how much anything weighs, and this page does not ask what anything is worth.

1. Default: a mixed pocketful of coins and twelve notes

   1. Zinc one-cent pieces: 4 × 2.50 ＝ 10.00 g
   2. Five-cent pieces: 3 × 5.00 ＝ 15.00 g
   3. Dimes: 5 × 2.268 ＝ 11.34 g
   4. Quarters: 6 × 5.67 ＝ 34.02 g
   5. Half dollars: 2 × 11.34 ＝ 22.68 g
   6. Coins: 10.00 ＋ 15.00 ＋ 11.34 ＋ 34.02 ＋ 22.68 ＝ 93.04 g
   7. Notes: 12 × 1 ＝ 12.00 g
   8. Total: 12.00 ＋ 93.04 ＝ 105.04 g, across 4 ＋ 3 ＋ 5 ＋ 6 ＋ 2 ＋ 12 ＝ 32 pieces

   Start here because the addition is exact: the two subtotals printed above the headline add up to the headline, so the panel can be checked against itself without recomputing anything. The five coin lines are also worth reading one at a time, because they are the same five multiplications this page exists to save you from. Twelve notes contribute twelve grams of a hundred and five, which is the thing most people get wrong when they guess at the weight of a pile: notes are almost nothing, and coins are nearly all of it.

2. Ten bronze one-cent pieces, the pre-1983 metal

   1. Ten bronze one-cent pieces at 3.11 g each: 10 × 3.11 ＝ 31.10 g
   2. Nothing else is in the pile, so both subtotals and the total are 31.10 g

   The older one-cent pieces need a field of their own because the same ten coins are two different weights depending on when they were struck, and nothing on a coin's face tells you which you have. 3.11 grams is the figure in the statute, and it is also the weight the Treasury rule derived its per-pound redemption rate from — that rule quotes both weights side by side, which is the source used here. If the coins in your hand were made after 1982 they are the copper-plated zinc ones, and the next example is the same ten coins again.

3. Ten zinc one-cent pieces, the same coins a generation later

   1. Ten copper-plated zinc one-cent pieces at 2.50 g each: 10 × 2.50 ＝ 25.00 g
   2. Nothing else is in the pile, so the total is 25.00 g

   Twenty-five grams against the thirty-one of the previous example: the composition change took 6.1 grams out of every ten one-cent pieces, about a fifth of their weight, and left their diameter alone. This pair of examples is the reason the page carries two one-cent fields rather than one. Nothing about the two coins distinguishes them at a glance, so if you do not know the vintage of what you are weighing, the honest move is to weigh one and see which field it belongs in; the statute's own carve-out lets the Secretary set the one-cent weight, which is exactly why this is the one denomination whose published weight has two answers.

4. One of each of the six coins, plus five notes

   1. One of each coin: 3.11 ＋ 2.50 ＋ 5.00 ＋ 2.268 ＋ 5.67 ＋ 11.34 ＝ 29.888 g
   2. Rounded once, at the end: 29.89 g of coins
   3. Notes: 5 × 1 ＝ 5.00 g
   4. Total: 5.00 ＋ 29.89 ＝ 34.89 g, across 6 ＋ 5 ＝ 11 pieces

   The unrounded sum is 29.888 grams and the panel prints 29.89, which is the clearest view of how this page rounds: once, at the end of a subtotal, to hundredths of a gram. The alternative — rounding a dime to 2.27 as you go — would show 29.89 here too and then disagree with the panel on other counts, which is the harder kind of error to notice. Eleven of these twenty-nine grams are the half dollar alone, so a single one of each denomination is not the even spread it sounds like.

5. A bag of nine hundred coins, no notes

   1. Zinc one-cent pieces: 500 × 2.50 ＝ 1250.00 g
   2. Five-cent pieces: 100 × 5.00 ＝ 500.00 g
   3. Dimes: 100 × 2.268 ＝ 226.80 g
   4. Quarters: 200 × 5.67 ＝ 1134.00 g
   5. Total: 1250.00 ＋ 500.00 ＋ 226.80 ＋ 1134.00 ＝ 3110.80 g
   6. The note subtotal is 0, so the pile is 3110.80 g across 900 pieces

   Three kilograms out of nine hundred coins, which is the sort of figure that decides whether you can carry the bag or should drive. The composition of this pile is the interesting part: two hundred quarters are more than a third of the weight on less than a quarter of the pieces, while five hundred one-cent pieces are less than half the weight on more than half the pieces. That is the general shape of coin weight — value and weight are barely related, because the metal is what weighs and the denomination is only printed on it. Add a handful of half dollars and the number jumps again: two of them weigh more than nine zinc one-cent pieces.

Four things are worth knowing before reading the panel. The first is what these weights are. Five of the six coin figures are the weights the statute prescribes for United States coins, and the sixth is the copper-plated zinc figure published in the Treasury rule that sets the redemption rate for them; none of them was measured by this page, and none of them is a rounded figure from a coin catalogue. The consequence is that they describe the specification rather than your coins. A worn coin weighs less than a new one, and a coin that has been in a fountain for a decade weighs less still. For a jar of mixed small change the difference is real but small; for a single coin it is the whole answer. The second is the missing dollar coin. There is a one-dollar coin in circulation, but the statute that fixes the specifications of coins lists it by diameter alone and the weight was struck out of the law by amendment, so there is no published figure this page could use. Rather than print a number from somewhere less authoritative, the ladder stops at the half dollar: a missing row is visible, and an invented one is not. The third is the note weight. One gram per note is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's own approximate figure, and it holds across every denomination, so a hundred in ones is a different object from a hundred in hundreds even though the two weigh the same. It is an approximation on a denomination that has been printed on many paper blends over the years, and a single note on a kitchen scale will often read a little under or over. The fourth is what the page does not know. It does not know the country: the ladder is United States denominations, and there is no field for another country's coins, because a weight can only be published by the mint that strikes it and this page only carries the ones that have been. It does not know the value of what you are weighing, and it does not know whether the coins are clean. If you need the face value of the pile rather than its weight, the money counter does that; if you need a currency converted, the currency converter does that at a rate you supply.

How much does a dollar weigh?

A dollar in copper-plated zinc one-cent pieces weighs about 250 grams, because each of the hundred coins weighs 2.50 grams. The same dollar in quarter pieces is four coins at 5.67 grams, which is 22.68 grams, under a tenth of the weight. The dollar is a unit of account, so it has no weight of its own: what has weight is the metal you are carrying, and the metal per dollar is fixed by the denomination. The one exception in circulation is the banknote, where a dollar in ones weighs a gram per note and a hundred-dollar note weighs the same gram.

Why are there two fields for the one-cent piece?

Because there are two one-cent pieces in circulation and they weigh different amounts. The bronze coin struck up to 1982 weighs 3.11 grams; the copper-plated zinc coin struck from 1983 onward weighs 2.50 grams. The Treasury rule that sets the redemption rate quotes both weights in the same sentence, and the statute itself singles out the one-cent piece as the coin whose weight the Secretary may change, which is why this is the only denomination where the published figure has two answers. Ten of them differ by 6.1 grams depending on which you have.

How many coins are in a kilogram?

It depends entirely on the denomination, and the reference table below gives the figure for each: four hundred one-cent pieces of the zinc kind weigh exactly a kilogram, two hundred five-cent pieces do, and it takes about 88 half dollars. Value and weight barely track each other, which is why the table is per coin rather than per dollar. For a mix, the honest answer is that you have to count the pile first: this page converts counts into weight, and it cannot guess the counts from a kilogram figure without knowing the mix.

Does a dollar coin have a row on the table?

No, and the omission is deliberate. The statute that fixes the specifications of United States coins describes the dollar coin by diameter only — 1.043 inches — and the weight was removed from that clause by an amendment in 1998, so there is no published figure this page could honestly use. A number from a coin catalogue or a dealer's page would probably be right, but it would be a different kind of source from every other figure here, and a wrong number in a table is much harder to notice than a missing row. The ladder therefore stops at the half dollar.

Why does the page not ask what my coins are worth?

Because weight and value are separate questions and mixing them would make both worse. Weighing a pile of mixed change cannot tell you its face value, and counting it cannot tell you its weight, though people routinely expect one to follow from the other. This page is the weight half, and it is the half that matters when you are posting a parcel, filling a coin jar to a kilogram, or deciding whether a bag can be carried. The money counter is the value half, with the same denominations and the same shape of panel.

Is the note weight exact?

No, it is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's own approximation, and the bureau says so: the approximate weight of a note, regardless of denomination, is one gram. Real notes have been printed on several paper blends over the decades, and a used note carries a little less than a crisp one. For a count of fifty notes the half-gram of slack does not change anything you would do with the answer; for the weight of a single note in a letter, the honest move is to put it on a scale.

• Denominations, specifications, and design of coins — the statute that fixes the weight of every circulating United States coin: the half dollar at 11.34 grams, the quarter at 5.67 grams, the dime at 2.268 grams, the 5-cent piece at 5 grams. It is the source of five of the six coin figures on this page, and its one-cent clause is the reason the sixth needs a second source: the weight is given as 3.11 grams only 'except as provided under subsection (c)', and subsection (c) lets the Secretary prescribe a different weight and alloy, which is what happened in 1982 — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (United States)
• Exchange of Coin — the Treasury rule that publishes both one-cent weights side by side: the bronze coin at 3.11 grams, which the redemption rate of $1.4585 per pound was derived from, and the copper-plated zinc coin at 2.50 grams that the Mint began issuing in 1983. It is where both one-cent figures are printed side by side, and the reason the ladder has two one-cent rows rather than one — Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (United States)
• Currency FAQs — the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's own statement that the approximate weight of a note, regardless of denomination, is one gram. It is the source of the single note field on this page: because the figure holds across every denomination, the note side of the ladder is a count of pieces rather than a list of seven denominations — Bureau of Engraving and Printing, U.S. Department of the Treasury (United States)