I found a nickel on the floor. I just read that the 1950-D nickel was worth a premium. I picked up the nickel (which I found at the store and dropped on the floor at home) and saw that it was a 1950. I looked at the back and was surprised to see the D mintmark. It is in well circulated condition. I read that these coins were worth over $10 in bad condition? Is this true?
Nah, this one doesn't need it and it is worth more than face, so I won't clean it. I did make a terrible looking bicentennial quarter look really nice though.
Actually I had recently read that 1950-D nickels premiums are on the down slope, since they were such a low mintage everyone was keeping them uncirculated from the start, and now they are everywhere in good conditions.
Shoot! As a kid I planned, plotted, looked high and low and wound up with nothing. I ended up paying $24 for one back in the sixties. I could buy one on the cheap today........60's money was worth a heck of a lot more and a young man (boy?) and his money were soon parted........
It's a really nice find because I had no idea what I had. I wonder how many other coins I have that I don't know the value of. I have a lot of Jefferson nickels so I might have some more.
The made a lot fewer 50D's than most other nickels, and when people found out about that they were widely hoarded. The problem with that is since a large proportion were saved in mint state, although they were low-mintage, they are not really rare at all. If you go to a coin show pretty much every dealer will have a couple of them at least. I have found almost every date/mintmark of Jefferson in circulation except for a few. Those being 50D, 42D and 39D. It really is a great find!
While it is true that 1950-D's were hoarded in uncirculated condition, the down slope has been over for quite some time and the prices of these coins have been pretty stable for some time now. That said, because the 50-D was hoarded in mint state, it is extremely rare to find one in circulation and many collectors would be interested in a circulated example for their circulated album collection. I listed an XF example on E-Bay earlier this year for $10 and it sold almost instantly.