I am finding it interesting that the priecs of the Jefferson nickel from before 1964 are what I would deem to be "expensive". I understand the War time years with the silver content, but cant quite put my finger on the collectability of the Jefferson pre 64' popularity.
You have it right there. Demand is as important to value as rarity, and Jeffersons are widely collected. They're seemingly scarcer into the highest of grades than other contemporary issues, as well.
@SuperDave has it right. Unless you're looking for very high grades, I believe the prices are reasonable for a collector on any budget.
Collecting Jefferson nickels can be fun, it's a series that can be easily collected to fill up a folder,album. However in higher grades, varieties and full steps this series may take you a life time! First of all you're talking 78 years of mintage , MS & PR, 3 different mints, then variety coins. Let just examine the year 1943. There are over 62, 1943 Philadelphia rpm's, the Denver mint has 16 rpm's,and the San Francisco mint 13 RPM's. Now this doesn't account for the over dates, and doubled dies. Or proof strikes coins. When you get into full steps nickels you are talking big bucks and a lifetime chasing them! There's a lot of collectors who discount nickels as being worthy of collecting . Only a few years made of a medal of value "silver". As a kid in the 1960's the only nickel I needed to complete my 1938 - 1964 was a 1950 D. At that time finding a 50 D in circulation was like finding a needle in a hay stack ! One must remember old timers like myself could just about fill a coin album from pocket change. The 1950 D in the 1960's in unc. Condition was around $35.00 . Now understand that if you adjust the rate of inflation that is equivalent to about $350.00 in 2016 dollars. Now you can buy the 1950 D MS-64 in full steps under $50! I have always enjoyed collecting nickels. They can be a worthy collect able. Some of the highest auctions to close have been nickels. One word of advise set your goals .... as you may find filling up a album may not be enough . If you do be ready to commit to a long search for quality nickels that may run you into a small fortune .
That's why Jeffs are so popular to collect, Paddy. You can make it as hard (expensive) as you want with high-grade FS's, or darn near assemble the whole set from circulation.
I doubt it very much these days you could assemble a set from circulation. Yes you can find early dates at reasonable prices. But the days of building a collection from pocket change or bank rolls are long gone! And can only add I wish I knew then as a paper boy collecting $2.50 for a month worth of news papers in all silver coinage, silver certificates , and red sealed $2 bills. And remembering spending war nickels and buffalo's on a single dip ice cream,or Hershey bar.
As Paddy mentioned it was doable from circulation even into the late 70's or so but now only a few pass by me before 1950 each year from roll searching. Nice examples were hard to find in circulation even when I was growing up as most were made of poor quality straight from the Mints, which used their dies to the bitter end. Even the mint sets had poor quality coins in them. It's a worthy endeavor to collect a high grade set with FS's but will certainly set your budget way back.
As a Jefferson Nickel registry collector, I can attest first hand to the difficulty in finding many date/mm in high grade that meet my quality standards for the issue. And I'm not talking about full step coins either. Consider the 1954-S, most of them are pure garbage. I cant begin to tell you how hard it is to find one that looks like this.
Wow. Really nice. That is a pop 1 and 0 at PCGS. I have 6 UNC rolls of these. None would grade over 64 and most are garbage.
Very interesting comment, especially the part that mentioned how you could fill an album with your pocket change when you were younger. I can relate to this very well. The only problem was that you had to have the discipline to save your collection when you were that young, and not spend it.
The NGC population in MS67 is 20/0. I would like to think this would crossover at PCGS but the population of 1/0 scares me. Still, it might be worth the risk if I can find other coins worthy of a crossover submission. I would probably crossover my variety coins since they drive considerable premiums in PCGS plastic. Here are some good candidates.
