Posting Jefferson nickels in order by date

1996-P
The next two holes in the Dansco were empty. Let's see what Dave's Collectible Coins can provide. I only mention them by name because theirs is more of a commodity oriented business rather than a specialist in high-end graded coins.

They list a lot of raw coins in a variety of grades, including low ones. For some issues, though, you can find the coin offered as "Gem BU". Prices are low - only $2.77 each for the 1996 business strikes.

You might get a better feel for this by looking at the shot of the Dansco in post #417. These photos are unforgiving, sorry to say.




Some of these purchases work out better than others. The 1969-S business strike shown back in post #253 was also about the same price from the same vendor. I think that one might be worth slabbing, but I don't feel the same about this one.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

1996-D
The other half of the "Gem BU" pair from yesterday's post. (The better of the two, and not shabby for a couple of bucks.)

 

Nice 6 full steps.

 

1996-S Proof

 

1997-P




I get the impression from NGC that these are hard to find in upper grades.

Total Graded: 129
Low Grade: 58
Average Grade: 65
High Grade: 69


Of those with six full steps, 57 are in MS66, 17 in MS67, and two in MS68. The price guide for MS66 is $115, and no values are given for higher grades. Finally, the price guide for MS67 5FS is $1140. (PCGS guide is 67: $1,000, 68: 3,500, 69: 4,500, and has population reports that are quite similar.) I suppose this could be a case of extrapolating beyond the range of the data.

The one above is raw, of course, and was another coin I had to buy to fill in an empty slot for $2.77.

 

In 97 the mint released the Botanical Gardens coin and currency sets. In this set was a 97P Jefferson with a satin finish. These coins are rarely graded under SP65
But they don't seem to carry the value of a high end business strike.
Some of the coins are gorgeous.
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1997-p-5c-sms-fs/84140

 

If you search a bit, you can get the entire Botanical set (dollar bill, dollar coin, and satin nickel, with original booklet) for less than the graded nickel.

Around $120 on eBay.

 

Now it turns out, while enjoying the photos of these sets, the text next to the nickel mentions that this was preceded by one other satin issue in 1994. That’s in the “jefferson coinage and currency set”.

Now I don’t have one of those either.

The Botanical Gardens set is discussed here on CoinTalk:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-thomas-jefferson-coinage-and-currency-sets.108352/

 

1997-D
Included in the Dansco

 

1997-S Proof

 

This ones impaired but I thought worth the 50 cents.

 

This thread makes me wonder if modern Jefferson nickels (and memorial Lincolns) are going to be surprisingly difficult to put together attractive complete gem sets of the business strikes despite the outrageously high mintages in the years to come.

Great continued work on the saga, @RonSanderson !

 

1998-P

I have read with interest @BadThad 's occasional remarks on searching for Memorial Cents. He has been collecting a lot longer than me, and has looked through untold quantities of circulation cents. His conclusions from years of searching are that the good coins are just not out there. You might think you can just grab one from the change jar, but you really can't.

I think the same is true with the Jeffersons. Sure, I was able to get some coins by scraping the best ones from a high-volume dealer's inventory. Their prices were extrapolated up from the next grade down, so were only a couple of dollars. I have a mental image of them breaking apart rolls, dropping the coins into slots marked BU, Choice, Gem, and so on, then gradually increasing the price on each bin.

If their prices were instead computed by stepping down from the highest grades, they would have been in the three figure range instead.

The intriguing point for me is that after I bought these, they went out of stock. So they had exactly one in their huge inventory, and they can't get another. Sure, they found one once, and nobody asked for it, and it sat there until I did.

As it happens, the original Dansco did not contain a 1998-P. So this one, also, came from Dave's Collectible Coins (davenders ) for $3.71. I just checked - for this purchase too, I got the last one. It is no longer listed in their inventory. Reviewing my past orders, almost every item says "Unfortunately this product is no longer for sale so it cannot be reordered."

 

I have some further thoughts on the availability of these modern coins.

Don't look for graded coins to be the supply for future collectors. Here are the NGC statistics for 1998-P.


First, out of 688,272,000 coins minted, fewer than three rolls have been sent to NGC for grading. If I felt my beat-up looking example was inadequate, could I just go to the LCS and grab one in a slab. No way - unless they had one in the dollar bin.

But, also, notice the grades. Not a single one in MS68. Just a quarter of a roll - ten nickels out of two-thirds of a billion coins - made it to MS67. A PCGS MS67 FS sold at Heritage a few years back for $540.

I think this is bifurcated market. One the one side are collectors and dealers who consider this basically pocket change and neither value nor preserve it. On the other side you have some registry set collectors who need it graded, and graded by a particular TPG. In between are collectors who find that there are more early Lincolns offered for sale than nickels from 20 years ago.

Some day we will look around and realize nobody actually bothered to save any.

 

So here is what I came up with looking at the total of 89P Jefferson's in the top four grading services. This is only in MS condition.
PCGS 455 total graded 428 of those FS
NGC 270 total graded 232 of those FS with 2 stars
ANACS 112 total graded
ICG 28 total graded.
Although that is quite a chunk. Total 865

It is still minimal to a 64P
PCGS 790 plus 112 in FS
NGC 446 plus 58 in FS
This is a coin that is unknown in 6FS and just between the top two has 1506 graded in MS.

This could be a zero interest area and the bulk of the coins were spent and have been in circulation, I don't doubt that at all. But I also believe there are plenty stashed away in folks collections and in dealers stock. That is until or even if they become collectible. The focus now is to have a top pop coin and if collectors don't make a push to buy these modern coins then I believe we will never know how many truly nice coins are out there.
We are long past the day when sets were broken up to put in an album, and I think this is up to the future generations. Will the past contemporary coins keep the interest of the future? Or, will moderns make a surge in the future? Because at this point in time I don't feel I will ever reap the benefits of a modern conditional rarity. Especially when anything below a 67 isn't worth the grading costs.
The invent of grading services has surely given a low blow to the modern series IMO because if it isn't in plastic then it isn't worth hardly over face value.

 

I think the Jefferson rolls are like 40's and 50's wheat rolls although I doubt that as many were stashed away. They will always be common in MS 65-66 grades but not so much in MS 67; especially with full steps.

 

I love these golden toned coins. This one just out of a Mint set.

 

All of my jeffersons from 68 on were pulled from mint sets.

 

And they are still a source for that. There are lots of listings for "original mint cello" even though it is hard to tell how good the coin in that packaging really is - until it arrives.

 

I buy them when I find a nice set.

What is too bad for me anyways is that dealers won't let you go through there stock.
Other wise I would use them as my source.
Even though they sell them for cheap, and don't look at them. They don't want to be cherrypicked.