When I was in my first year of high school (1972) I broke down and paid $10.00 for an Unc. It was the last coin I needed for the set. It took me a while to save up for it. I'm not sure but, I think that's about what I would pay for one today. They were trapped in the roll craze that went on in the 50's to early 60's. I bet there are a ton mint states rolls of those nickels still out there as well as other dates from that time frame. A circulated 50-D was never seen back then. I suspect the one found in change was spent by some family member of a collector that had rolls of them.
I paid $14 for mine in about 2005...I had it graded a few years later and it came back a MS65FS by ANACS. I guess it's worth $30 or so now so it's a break even deal. I remember in the early 60s it went for about the same. There are a million of these left to place with collectors in high grade...the price will never go up. The moral of this story is to never judge a coin by it's mintage figures without doing research first. Today, the 50-D is one of the most common issues in high grade, and one of the most inexpensive to obtain.
i beg to differ. I think the moral of the story is to keep searching your pocket change; you may find something rare and cool. It’s clear this is a very rare circulated coin and I’m lucky and happy to have found it. And I’d rather have this one than an MS 65 FS that I bought, although still a very nice coin.
Bully for you! I broke down and bought one about 10 years ago after searching my change for 40 years for the damn thing.
Thank you for the offer, but the interest is in seeing how long it takes them to show up in my change. 17 years and none have shown up yet. But $30 in 1960 had the purchasing power of $128 today. $14 in 2005, is $21 today.
Here is one I found in change, probably in the early 50's. It is from an very worn die. And, it appears that it is the only one I have. However in the last 70 years I may have found others and traded them. I really don't remember.