It's pocket change. You are 100% correct. Change found in Circulation after 80 and 79 years will always look good. How will you look in 80 or 79 years ? Keep them. but then, I hoard all my change and keep virtually all my pocket change. Think of how many times they were used in vending machines, or gumbal machines. All the scraping of metal against metal wearing then down and damaging them. Used as money as they were meant to be used. Imagine if people were as careless with their metals cars as they are with change.
I’ll probably keep my little dumb dumb collection separate for keepsake. I’ve enjoyed all of the looking and the funny responses I’ve been getting. Classic noob!
I been collecting fifty years. If I pull a 1939-40 nickel from my pocket change... You bet it goes in my keeper bucket. Nice catch.
The only ones of value in those grades are 1939-D, '50-D, War Nickels and doubled dies. See Red Book for listings and pics.
I would strongly recommend buying a copy of "A Guidebook of United States Coins" , commonly called the redbook. While price guide part might not be the most accurate for absolute values, since it's only updated yearly, it is very easy to figure out which are the better dates. It is also filled with loads of info, like mintages, weights, compositions, a basic grading guide which works well for circulated coins, plus all kinds of history. Far and away, the best $10-15 you'll ever spend on the hobby.