The wear behaviour of Cr12MoV, 65Nb and GCr15 steels coated with VC and quenched without the coating was investigated. The wear tests were performed using a pin-on-disc wear machine under dry sliding conditions. The microstructure of the coating was characterized using Neophot-21 optical microscopy and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). The surface and subsurface changes that took place during wear were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The wear resistance of the coated Cr12MoV was comparable with that of coated 65Nb. Vanadized Cr12MoV and 65Nb demonstrated wear rates up to 9 and 30 times lower than those of the uncoated steels tested respectively. The wear rates of vanadized Cr12MoV, 65Nb and GCr15 steels increased with increasing load. The wear life of the VC coating depended on the characteristics of the coating, the strength of the substrate and the counterface materials. The high wear resistance of vanadized steels was attributed to the high hardness of the VC coating.