Coins
Twenty years of CPSC NEISS emergency-room records for this consumer product category, combined with demographic breakdowns, multi-year injury trends, and matching recall notices.
Personal Care & Safety Products · CPSC Code 1686
Stable over 5 years
The verdict
Coins carry a danger score of 46/100 (moderate risk), driven by roughly 34,037 ER-treated injuries a year that are roughly flat over the last five years.
- 46/100
- danger score (moderate risk)
- 34,037
- ER visits per year (avg)
- 16.4%
- end in hospital admission
- 0-4
- most-injured age group
Every figure is rendered from the CPSC NEISS record for product code 1686 - last data year 2024.
PlainSafety danger score
How this 46/100 score is built
The score is computed from four CPSC-derived factors for coins - no opinion, no editorializing:
- Injury volume34,037 ER visits/yr
- Severity (hospitalization rate)16.4%
- Fatality rate0.00%
- 5-year trend-10%
See the full methodology for the exact weighting of each factor.
What the CPSC Data Shows
Coins (CPSC product code 1686, in the Personal Care & Safety Products category) generate an estimated 34,037 emergency-room visits every year in the United States, adding up to roughly 680,748 ER-treated injuries across the 20-year span from 2005 to 2024. PlainSafety derives a danger score of 46/100 for this category (moderate risk), combining raw injury volume, demographic reach, severity of outcome, and multi-year trend. The five-year trajectory shows that injury counts are roughly flat over the last five years, with the busiest year on record being 2013 (40,261 estimated ER visits) and the quietest 2020 (24,903 estimated visits).
The single most common ER diagnosis for coins is ingestion to the internal, accounting for approximately 614,737 visits across the 20-year NEISS window, followed by aspiration to the internal (31,348 cases). The 0-4 age group absorbs the largest share of injuries, about 458,681 cases over the NEISS window, and males appear slightly more often than the opposite sex in that cohort. Severity outcomes from the NEISS disposition field show that 16.4% of ER visits involving this product end in hospital admission or transfer.
Beyond the hospital-sampled NEISS projections, this page also aggregates 0 consumer incident reports filed directly on SaferProducts.gov, plus 20 anonymized ER narratives - together forming a layered picture of how coins fail in real households. Every figure on this page comes from CPSC-published data: NEISS projects national estimates from a probability sample of about 100 U.S. hospital emergency departments, while SaferProducts.gov collects voluntary reports from consumers, manufacturers, and clinicians. The danger score, trend indicators, and demographic breakdowns update automatically when CPSC releases a new yearly NEISS file, which is why this page is dated 2024-12-31. For regulatory context, consult CPSC recall notices and the SaferProducts.gov public database linked below.
Annual Injury Estimates (2005–2024)
Source: CPSC NEISS national estimates CPSC NEISS national estimates Injuries represent ER-treated cases only
Who Gets Injured?
| Age Group | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-4 | 244,579 | 214,036 | |
| 5-14 | 122,182 | 74,699 | |
| 15-24 | 4,323 | 2,482 | |
| 25-34 | 1,673 | 1,656 | |
| 35-44 | 1,332 | 1,022 | |
| 45-54 | 1,575 | 1,347 | |
| 55-64 | 1,275 | 1,132 | |
| 65-74 | 1,533 | 1,514 | |
| 75+ | 1,632 | 2,692 |
Most Common Injuries
| Body Part | Diagnosis | Est. Injuries |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | Ingestion | |
| Internal | Aspiration | |
| Face | Foreign Body | |
| Mouth | Foreign Body | |
| Face | Laceration | |
| Head | Internal Injury | |
| Lower Trunk | Strain, Sprain | |
| Lower Trunk | Other | |
| Upper Trunk | Foreign Body | |
| Face | Contusions, Abr. | |
| All Parts Body | Other | |
| Lower Trunk | Fracture | |
| Not Stated/unk | Other | |
| Finger | Laceration | |
| Eyeball | Contusions, Abr. |
Severity Breakdown
ER Visit Narratives
Real anonymized emergency room reports from the CPSC NEISS database.
11YOM C/O INADVERTENTLY SWALLOWING A QUARTER YESTERTDAY. SCANS SHOW OBJECT IN STOMACH. DX: SWALLOWED FOREIGN BODY
3YOM SWOLLOWED A COIN DX: FOREIGN BODY ESOPHAGUS
5YOM SWALLOWED A COIN DX FOREIGN BODY INGESTION
4 YOM SWALLOWED A COIN AT HOME. DX FB INGESTED
11 YOM SWALLOWED A COIN. DX FB INGESTED
10YOM SWALLOWED A QUARTER DX: FOREIGN BODY INGESTION *
3YOF SWALLOWED A COIN. DX INGESTED FB
10YOF SWALLOWED A QUARTER. DX INGESTED FB
4YOM- PT SWALLOWED A COIN MOM THINKS IT WAS A DIME PT WAS LAYING NEXT TO MOM & VOMITED X 1 NO CHOKING OR TROUBLE BREATHING. DX: SWALLOWED FB.
6 YOF PRESENTS WITH SWALLOWED FOREIGN BODY S/P SWALLOWED A PENNY. DX: SWALLOWED FOREIGN BODY
4 YOF PRESENTS WITH SWALLOWED FOREIGN BODY S/P SWALLOWED A COIN. DX: SWALLOWED FOREIGN BODY
5YOF PRESENTS AFTER SWALLOWING TWO PENNIES DX FOREIGN BODY INGESTION
Product Recalls
Search for active and past recalls related to coins on the CPSC website.
Frequently Asked Questions
How dangerous are coins?
Based on 20 years of CPSC data, coins have a danger score of 46/100 (moderate risk). An estimated 34,037 ER-treated injuries occur annually in the U.S. related to this product category.
What are the most common injuries from coins?
The most common injury is ingestion to the internal, accounting for approximately 614,737 injuries over 20 years.
Are injuries from coins increasing or decreasing?
Stable over 5 years.
Who is most at risk for coins injuries?
The 0-4 age group accounts for the most injuries, with approximately 458,681 cases recorded over 20 years. Males are more frequently injured in this age group.
What happens when someone is injured by coins?
Of all ER visits involving coins, approximately 16.4% result in hospital admission. The majority of patients (83.6%) are treated and released from the emergency department.
How can I report a safety problem with coins?
You can file a consumer incident report at SaferProducts.gov, the official CPSC reporting portal. Reports help the CPSC identify emerging hazards and trigger investigations or recalls. You can also call the CPSC hotline at 1-800-638-2772.
Related Products in Personal Care & Safety Products
Safety Guides
What this means for you
Treat the 46/100 score as relative risk between products, not your personal odds of injury.
- See where this category ranks against every other tracked product. Full rankings
- Injuries cluster in the 0-4 age group, take extra care if that describes your household.
- Check for active recalls on this product before you assume it is safe. CPSC recalls
NEISS estimates ER-treated injuries from a national probability sample of hospitals; they do not capture injuries treated elsewhere or not treated at all.
Data: CPSC National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) 2005–2024 and SaferProducts.gov consumer incident reports. Injury estimates are based on a nationally representative probability sample of U.S. hospital emergency departments. This page is for informational purposes only and is not affiliated with the CPSC.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, scored, and verified.