Data of optical performance, thermal stability and ageing are given for solar selective coatings (SSC) based on a novel MoSi2–Si3N4 absorbing composite. SSC have been prepared as multilayer stacks formed by silver as metallic infrared reflector, a double layer composite and an antireflective layer (doi: 10.1016/j.solmat.2016.04.001 [1]). Spectroscopic reflectance data corresponding to the optical performance of samples after moderate vacuum annealing at temperatures up to 600 °C and after ageing test of more than 200 h with several heating–cooling cycles are shown here. ; This work has been supported by European Commission under HITECO Collaborative project contract No. 256830 from the FP7-ENERGY program and by the CSIC PIE project E201460E108, by the Spanish MINECO through contract MAT2012-37276-C03-01 and by the Madrid Regional Government through contract P2013/MIT-2740. E.C. acknowledges MINECO for the “Formación Posdoctoral (JdC)” program (FPDI-2013). ; S2013/MIT-2740/PHAMA ; EUR 446,27 APC fee funded by the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot ; Peer reviewed