I was at my LCS today and my eye caught the shelf full of cardboard albums. I haven't filled up one of those since I was a teenager (I keep my coins in 2x2's or tubes today). So since I'm avidly roll searching these days, I decided to try something. I picked up the Lincoln Memorial/Shield cents folders (two of them) and the Jefferson Nickel 1962-date (two of them) and, just using coins I find while roll-hunting, I'm going to see how many rolls I have to search to complete the folder. I'm not worried about time, just the number of rolls. I'm anticipating that the nickels should be fairly easy as even the 68-S through 70-S are fairly easy to find. For cents, the S-mints might take a little while longer. My one rule is that I can't back-fill with existing stuff. I must start from scratch. So I'm going to go way out on a limb and predict 1 box of rolls for nickels but 2 boxes for cents. I'll update this thread either upon completion or when I reach my predictions and have failed!
Before I get started, just some quick math... Cents will be 1959 to 2013 (I didn't spring for the 2014-date folder for just 10 coins). Will include all circulation issues including the 7 varieties of 1982 and 8 varieties of 2009. No proof-only issues. Total number of coins to find: 126 Nickels will be 1960 to 2018. All circulation issues including the 8 varieties of 2004/2005. No proof-only issues. Total number of coins to find: 119 I'll get started tonight!
Nickels I'll predict you are short 3 from this list: 1960p 1961p 1962p 1967 1968d 1971p 2009p 2009d And if you count all the 1964pd, I'll predict there are 68 of them in your box.
That's what he's saying as I understand it. As time goes by even high mintage coins get tougher to find. In Jefferson's, this list is the case.
I haven't started on nickels yet and I've only gone through 5 rolls of cents but I've already filled about a third of the lincoln's. I'm taking my time because, even while I'm performing this little test, I'm still searching for close/wide AM's and DD's.
I cant rememer how many boxes it took me to complete my nickel, dime, and washington quarter books, but i know i started and finished them this year. There was a few nickels i reallly had to search for though, forget the specific dates but i know the mint was marked in the back, making it a little difficult at times. There were only a couple quarters that were tough also. Been thinking about getting some recent date coin albums, just for the fact that theyre easy to get right now and i dont wanna scramble for them 10+ years down the road.
... Bought a box Wednesday. Just to see what I'd get. Ended up missing 4 of them: no 1960p, 1968d, 2009p, and 2009d. I did find a 1937 buffalo in about xf condition. Sadly, no silver war nickels. Also counted 72 coins dated 1964p and 1964d.
Sunday afternoon update. Been working on the cents exclusively. I've gone through 15 rolls and I've filled 103 of the 126 holes for 81%. Surprisingly, it took till the very last roll to find all the shield cents. The 2011 was hard to find. I've got the full set from 77 onward with the exception of the 86-d and I'm still missing 4 of the 8 '09 cent varieties. I've also found 2 of the 7 possible s-mints. So most of the remaining holes are, not surprising, pre-75.
Still waiting to hear about the nickel box results. I have updated my totals since starting a year and a half ago in my signature. I am still missing the 1938s, 1943d silver and the 1950d. And surprised at how few 2009 dated nickels I've found.
I'm mixing in this "experiment" with my regular roll-hunting as well as other coin-related pursuits. So I'm focusing on the cents initially. I hope to get started on the nickels in a few days.
I've now been through 25 rolls of cents and I'm down to only 13 slots left: 61 62 63 68s 69 70s 72s 73s 74s and 4 of the '09/09d varieties I'll get started on nickels tonight or tomorrow.
Here's my first nickel progress report. I'm 15 rolls in and am making much better progress that I was with cents at this same point. I'm only missing 13 pieces which means I've gotten 106/119 or 89%. You guys nailed fairly accurately the ones I'd be missing towards the end: 63 65 68D 68S 69S 70S 75D 81P 86P 09P/D 18P/D (although this pair might not be quite fair as I have a feeling this box was possibly put together prior to January). The 09p/d seem to be a general consensus "toughie" (of course, the fact they are the lowest mintage circulation strike since 59 might have something to do with it). Will do more tomorrow.....
Sunday night and I've now gone through 33 rolls of nickels and I'm still 5 coins short. I still haven't found the 65, the 68d, the 68s, and the pair of 09's. I must be honest that the 09's scarcity has surprised me a bit. Prior to starting roll hunting, other than purchasing the annual mint sets, I never paid much attention to modern stuff. I knew the 09's (across all circulating denominations) had lower mintages and, as I mentioned earlier, the nickel mintage was the lowest since 1959. But I still figured they would show up occasionally. But with 33 rolls, I've gone through 1320 nickels and not a single 09 in sight. This project may come down -- both in cents and nickels -- to "how long will it take for me to find an 09?" rather than "how long to fill up an album?"!