Pre-1960 nickels...

Like some of you on this board, I collect 1959 and below nickels that I pull from circ. (just as I do with wheaties). I only collect them because, along with wheaties, they're the only "older" coins you can still find in circulation other than the OCCASIONAL silver dime, quarter, oddity, etc. My question is, though: is there any evidence that all these nickels will be worth anything come 5, 10, 20 years from now? I'll still collect them since it's always fun to search rolls and things like that, but I don't want to go overboard with things like this if it's not too worthwhile. At this point, I have 4 full rolls of wheaties and one roll of nickels after a year or so of cherry-picking, so it hasn't gotten out-of-control. Not yet, anyways :smile .

 

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I search rolls for these types of things (and others) and my personal take on it is that they won't be worth too much due to the average condition being pretty circulated, but on the other hand wheaties and pre-1960 nickels are hard enough to find that it's only costing me a few dollars a week, or less, to keep them- which just means I can't order pizza as often as I used to .

 

If you're having fun collecting them then by all means do it. There are lots of different ways to do this so that they are fun. As to future value, you're probably doing it backward.

People saved rolls and bags of nickels during the entire run. Collecting from pocket change was popular during the entire run though before 1945 there were relatively few collecting nickels due to high face value. This means there are millions of BU and millions of high circulated grade nickel of all the pre-1965 dates. It's when you get after 1965 that most people quit saving any new coins. You can find ten old Jefferson collections for each modern Jefferson collections. This ratio is even higher for other denominations. Not only weren't many of these newer coins saved in unc but almost none have been saved in XF or VF. Soon all these coins are likely to be melted since they contain 8c worth of metal in each one leaving very few of the late date coins in any grade.

The best bet for making a profit is to save the best coins of each date you can find. Look for nice attractive coins with nice even wear. Also save all the better varieties you can find.

The best bet for having fun is whatever you want it to be.

 

You may want to go to a bank and ask if they have a bag of nickels. Some have $200 bags of nickels and you may be suprized how many you find in there. Jefferson nickels have never been a really biggy for collectors so there are a lot of great ones around. As to what they will be worth in the future, no one knows. An example of stupid saving the wrong thing I remember back in the late 70's when eveyone ran out and collected the Bicentennial Quarters. One friend of mine had virtually thousands of dollars worth of almost new ones. I too got sucked into saving a pile of the things. After almost 30 years I find they are worth about .25 each so to the bank they went. Same with that friend of mine. If we would have invested in buggy whips for horse drawn buggies we would have made out better.

 

I don't collect nickels. I have found many pre-1960 jeffs, and spent them. I only keep nickels if they are buffalo (I've found 1 so far) or if they are westward journey/2006 (no found in circ. yet, bought a roll of 'em though)

 

I just like the look of a pre 1965 nickel, they just have a certain look to them. I like going through the nickels and finding the 50's, 40's are great, but 30's are even better. I have yet to find a 38 though. I have found a few buffs, but thats pretty rare.

 

The bicentenial quarters go for a fair premium on eBay. I'd have bought a bunch off you at face .

 

I'm not really a nickel collector either but, like some of you, I keep all that I get in change that are older than 1960. I can't help myself.

 

pre 1960 nickels get 12-15 cents each on ebay.:secret:

 

I find it sort of funny that people pull nickels that are pre-1960 when there is actually no reason for the 1960 demarcation. It is most likely the result of the penny demarcation being 1958 and older. I find plenty of nickels from the 1950's when I search nickels. They certainly aren’t rare. I personally think anything 1950 and older makes more sense to save. I’ve pretty much drawn the line at 1950 or if they are in Reallllly good shape and pre-1960. What do you all think?

 

WHAT - you could have sold two rolls for http://cgi.ebay.com/2-rolls-US-BICENTENNIAL-QUARTERS-1776-1976_W0QQitemZ120009359670QQihZ002QQcategoryZ521QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting on Ebay. Current listing was 25 bucks and another is sitting at $16 with 6 shipping and handling.

 

Toss em in the jar (I'm going to have fun looking through that jar when I'm 80..).

 

As of the end of metal trading yesterday - 07/21/2006 - the US Nickel has a metal content value of 6.21 cents - approx 24% over face value.

 

Hi,

I save all the nickels I find from the sixties, as well.
I must have hoarded thousands of them, over the years.

I have several rolls of most dates from 1970, and above, too.
Like most folks, I usually only save the very best examples of the more recent dates.

I can't answer your question, because I honestly don't know.
I rather doubt that most modern, circulated coins will be worth much, until our government switches to a cashless system, though. JMO

I just love nickels. I love collecting them.
I can't really explain why.

 

You have to ask yourself, "Why aren't there more Wheaties in circulation"? It's because of the design change in 1959. Wheaties slowly disappeared from circulation because they were different from the new design. Had the wheat reverse continued to this day, there would be many more older-dated Lincolns in circulation than there are now. People simply wouldn't have noticed the difference and they would have remained in circulation longer.

Now, with the Jeffersons the same theory exists. The old "Felix Schlag" obverse is gone from the nickel forever. As more and more of the new design enter circulation, the old design will slowly disappear, undoubtedly filling many coffee cans around the world.

Will the old Jeffersons be worth more in the future? YES. Will it be worth it to save thousands of them? Well, how many wheat cents would you like to have right now?

 

I think/ hope they are going to be worth some money soon. I've been going to the bank and buying rolls of nickels just for that reason. I've pulled out some 200+ pre 59 nickels out of $140+ in nickels.

 

I used to do this back in the early 1970's. There were a lot more in those days and they were in only slightly better condition. The reason they were only a little better is that people are forever pulling them out of change and saving them so they don't get any wear for years on end. I had almost a roll set except for a few dates and the war nickels.

But coins like the '71-P were hard to come by and these were actually wearing away. It seemed to me if the '71's were tough in change and people didn't save them in unc then they should be great in choice or gem condition. Today little has changed except that the '71-P's in circulation have worn a great deal thinner and their price in unc has gone to about $30 per roll from $3.75 per roll. Considering it still gets little demand that's not a bad increase. Of course gems are much scarcer and sell for $20 and up. No doubt as the demand for the later coins pushes the prices higher some people will start looking for XF's so there will be increases for these as well. You'll certainly have trouble finding a nice XF '71 in change now days. It's probably easier to find a 1939 in XF than a 1971 in XF, EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE ARE PULLING THE OLDER COIN OUT OF CIRCULATION.

Many of the later nickels are hard to find nice in any grade and this doesn't apply to any other nickel made after about 1928. There are also varieties which have been ignored which exist in far fewer numbers yet.

 

:eat: Haha who needs weightwatchers when you have roll searching and coin collecting...


Peter

 

Im waiting for a price jump in the key dates of the late thirties and the few scatered around during the fifties. the 1950-d only commands 6 dollars at ms-60, thats only 3 dollars less than the 1982 P in the same state which has 100 times the mintage