V or Buffalo nickels?

How often do you all find V or buffalo nickels?

 

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NEVER! Literally, never. The best I've ever found in change or rolls was a silver war nickel. And that's after 11 years of amateur collecting

 

Since January I have searched 1,238 nickel rolls and found:

24 War Nickels
6 Buffalo Nickels
23 Foreign Coins
0 Liberty Nickels

 

Okay, I have had sometimes unbelievable results asking tellers for half dollar rolls, I feel it pays better than other denominations, unless you are collecting particular dates of others.

 

I searched a $500 box of halves; not a single one of import.

However, once I went to the counter and got 38 loose halves - got one 90% and 3 40%s.

 

I've found 11 Buffalos in 62,000 coins so far... so about 1 in every 5,500.
I have found 1 V nickel so far... so the odds are pretty slim!!!

 

Halves and Nickels are definitely where you have your best finds... though with the Halves you can have lots of dry spells... the Nickels are more a steady flow...

 

In NYC around 1974 I was going to the subway and stopped to buy a paper. The guy at the shop was scoping out something in the change drawer and I asked what it was...the only V nic I have seen in change. Gave him a nickel for it.

 

50 years ago, as a kid collector, Buffaloes could be had here, there and everywhere. But I never recall either me or my father finding a V.

 

I can proudly say that after 60 rolls, I had found 2 buffaloes. Sadly I haven't found any since then.

 

The Buffalos are streaky... I've found 6 this month... my previous 4 1/2 months of searching, I found 5.

 

That gives me the motivation to search more nickels!

 

Awesome! Just don't go taking my rolls now.

 

As long as you don't live in Orange County CA we should be good!

 

I'm well north of there, so we're good!!!

 

As of 2002 I have never seen one. - Alright in all of seriousness, I think I remember getting one as a kid. Of course I don't have it, even if I did ever get one. When I looked at a picture at an IHC and BN they both looked familiar and I strangely thought of hallowe'en. Oldest nickel I found in change was a 1940.

 

Working as a cashier off-and-on over the past seven years I have found this many:



I've found 2 shield nickels in circulation as well.

I had more buffalo nickels but, while picking up food from a taco-truck - while walking home from just having sold a few silver coins at the local shop - I put all the loose change within my pocket into the tip jar. This loose change included all my buffalo nickels and probably other goods, which I had chosen not to sell to the aforementioned local coin shop. That was about 3 or so years ago.

The war nickels go down the table a bit farther out of view.



Found this 1903 American-Philippine nickel (next two pics):




Good condition buffalo nickel:


Indian head chin peel:

All of the coins pictured came out of a cash drawer. I spot anything worth keeping in the till from a mile away! If someone has a silver quarter in their hand or purse I can sometimes hear it before I see it - I will talk you up and divert your attention in order to distract you and thereby increase the odds of you handing me your valuable coins.

 

I've also found 2 old German 10 pennies in with some nickels. One is dated 1875, the other 1915:



I tend not to pay out of pocket for my cash-drawer finds so all these coins cost me much less than face-value.

(following 2 pics are 1915 coin)

 

Wow!!!

 

Out of 174,240 nickels searched (mostly CWR) going back to August 2013, I've found exactly no V nickels at all. Don't have a good count on buffalos since I didn't start tracking them separately until this year. In 2016 I have gotten 38 of them - but 33 of those came from 2 great rolls last week. Then there's the 139 war nickels so at least the hunt hasn't been in vain.