A question for you nickle roll searchers!

Due to my terrible luck with halves (I have yet to pull a single piece of silver out of a bank!) I am considering buying rolls of nickels. A couple reasons are War Nickels (I'm a silver ***** at heart =/ ) and buffalo nickels. I get all kinds of excited when I see buffalo nickels!

So here is my question to you more experienced roll searchers! 1) What is the current ratio of getting a War Nickel? I understand it is pure luck but is it something like 1 in every box? 1 in every 10 rolls? I need to get my silver on! Also, what about the ratio for buffalo nickels?

Thanks a ton for all your help and insight! Thank you!

 

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I haven't done nickels in a while but I found a few war nickels but not a huge quantity. I don't think I ever found a buffalo. I feel your pain on silver I have had no luck lately.

 

I was roll searching nickels a few months back to put together a circulated set of Jefferson Nickels. I probably searched between 20 and 30 rolls total before I broke down, went to the coin shop and bought the dates I needed.

Here's the interesting part of the story. I found 4 silver War Nickels, and never came across a 2009 or 2010 D in circulation. Now I'm on the east coast, so D mints aren't as prevalent, but I figured with 20 or 30 rolls I'd hit at least one.

 

I average at least one war nickel every box, sometimes 2. Never more. Buffalos every other box. I like doing nickels. Even though they're not worth as much, I still get a lot of satisfaction over halves because I feel like I'm at least finding something. But again, nothing compares to the silver value of the halves. In no way is searching nickels going to make you any money.

 

I have only searched 3 boxes of nickels and on my first box i found 3 war nickels but none in the other two

 

I have searched many many boxes of nickels. I have found a handful of silver in very circulated condition and one buffalo nickel, also in very circulated condition. I no longer search them.

 

I've only done about 4 boxes, maybe 5 boxes of nickels. I've found 4 war nickels.

 

I search nickel rolls now and then, never picking up more than $20 worth from the bank at any one time. Over the course of a year, I probably go through a box+.

Recent nickel finds by year:

2009: 3-War nickels (very circulated/ragged), 0-Canadian, and 1-'Dateless' 1920 Buffalo nickel.
2010: 0-War nickels, 0-Canadian, 1-Guatemalan, 1-Somali 5 Shillings piece.
2011*: 0-War nickels, 0-Canadian, and (again) 1-'Dateless' 1920 Buffalo nickel.

*to date

 

I average 1 war per box and have never found a buffalo. Did find some 2010 nickels recently.

 

Can you identify the war nickels without looking at the date?

 

Sure, look for the P mint mark.

 

2 rolls with no luck, but found a 1941 and a 1942 non war

 

One box of nickels today, 2 1945 Ps. That's my first ever box of two war nickels.

 

As one person said, you can look for the big mint mark, but all circulated Jefferson's Ive seen have had a unique, black-brown toning on it.

 

My girlfriend and I have a saying that we often use while nickel searching: "$(%* you 1964!"

 

Yup 1964 nickels are everywhere when your searching rolls or bags. Same with the quarters if your searching rolls or bags 1965's everywhere!!!

Also I have roll searched more nickels than anything and have never found a war nickel or buffalo or a "V" and I have searched over $1000.00 worth

 

More accurately, war nickels have a large mint mark above Monticello (P, D, or S)

 

My nickel history;

$5,189 searched
61 War nickels
57 Buffalo nickels
1 V-nickel

30 of the Buffalo nickels came out of two boxes, so that skews those numbers quite a bit. Typically, I've found 1 War nickel per box, 1 Buffalo every 2.5 boxes or so, and about 3/4's a roll of pre-60's in each box.

 

I did a box this morning that started off horribly. A 1959 was all I had after 25 rolls. But then the tidal wave hit. No war nickels, but a dateless Buffalo, two dozen pre-60s, and a full step 1940.

 

full step?