Any of you nickel collectors having difficulty finding any 1965 Jeffersons? I've been roll searching for about 6 months now and have found exactly 2. Then, I thought I'd try my dealer, who has BU rolls from almost every year they were made, except for 1965. Any idea why the shortage?
I don't have a problem. I'm not going for BU but I have three albums which have that date filled from roll searching I've done recently.
I have mostly found pre-65 stuff, but not a lot of 65's. I do have the spot in my book covered though.
The 1964 date was frozen on the coins and used for all of 1964 and most of 1965. The 1965 date was only used briefly in 1965 and for a couple months in 1966. It doesn't have a low mintage, but it is lower than the other years around it.
There was a time, well into the '70s, that I would bet that if you pulled 5 nickels at random from your pocket or a cash register, at least 3 would be dated 1964. And I'd win more often than not.
I can't say that I have had a problem with that coin. I have one all the way down here in Aus. Steve :smile:smile:smile
While roll searching I find 1964's in every roll, and I just tossed them aside. Haven't gotten around to spending them yet.
i keep the all pre 1960, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1968D, 1968S, 1969S, and 1971 nickels. don't ask me why, i just do. i really have a hard time finding the 1967 nickels.
The '65 nickel has a few interesting characteristics. It's the last date without the designer's initials and is one of the most poorly made nickels of the era. The mint was trying to mint enough coins to relieve the coin shortage and this took its toll on quality of all the coins. The bag and roll boom was collapsing along with the prices of the recently dated coins. The things which went on at this time discouraged collectors from setting aside new coins and this applied to the '65 nickel to some extent as well. Most collectors just ended their collections at 1964 (or '59) so fewer of these were set aside. Those which went into circulation pretty much stayed in circulation so nice attractive examples of this coin are a little elusive in any condition. Few were pulled out of circulation until very recently so XF and AU examples are tough. Gem examples are scarce and Full Step specimens are rare (doubly so if not SMS). This coin was made at all three mints which was the first time since 1954 that all three made nickels. San Francisco made all the coins for the SMS's but also produced millions for circulation.
