There are many coin roll hunters in the numismatic world. And although I love the idea of finding hidden treasure, I abhor the thought of searching roll after roll of circulated coins looking for tiny die varieties with a loupe. Instead, I do what I call "album hunting" with Jefferson Nickels. I look to buy complete or mostly complete gem bu Jefferson Nickel collections in Danscos and other albums, then I break the album down and photograph each coin and sell them individually on E-Bay. The hope is to find one or two really nice premium gems that I can submit to the TPGs in hopes of making some real money while selling the remaining coins raw for small profits to recoup my initial investment. Today I starting pulling coins from my most recent acquisition which was a Harris album that was missing some of the early dates and war nickels including the 39-D & 39-S. After pulling the 38s which were all really nice gem bu coins, I pulled the following 5 coins in succession. 1939 Reverse of 40 CH BU 5FS 1940 BU 6FS 1940-D CH BU 6FS 1940-S BU 5FS 1941 Premium GEM BU 5FS I seriously can't wait to find out how many more full step coins this album has to give after putting up 5 in a row. The war nickels that were in there were mostly "just miss" full steps but I didn't look at anything after 1945. Wish me luck!
Okay guys, the 41-D and 41-S were busts, but here come the war nickels (some are missing) which are all painfully close to full steps, or as I like to call it, PCGS FS (just kidding PCGS guys). 1942-P CH BU: The shark tooth hit above the E breaks the steps. 1942-S GEM BU: The mark above the N traverses all the steps 1943-P GEM BU FS (PCGS Standards only): These are the type of steps that PCGS will but NGC won't. 1943-D BU Details (Damaged) 6FS: 1945-D GEM BU: Bridge above the C precludes full steps. 1945-S CH BU FS (PCGS Standards Only): PCGS will forgive the light mark above the I and the very slight bridging above the C. For those who don't know, the 1945-S is extremely rare in full steps and even in less than gem is worth several hundred dollars. Next up is the post war coins which are typically very elusive in full steps outside the Denver mint coins.
Just an update on this coin, as it is the only one from this album that I submitted to NGC. Another home made for my Registry collection. Man, I love hitting homeruns!
I kinda gave up on this album after pulling out all the coins from the 50s without finding a single gem full step example, but then I turned the page and found a bunch more from the 60s & 70s. 1962 GEM BU FS 1963 GEM BU FS (Submitting to PCGS)
This next one is perplexing. I mean it has to be an SMS coin because the standard issue 1966 just doesn't come with full steps, but the toning on the coin is making it look like it is not an SMS coin. Anyone have any thoughts as to whether this is an SMS or business strike? 1966 SMS GEM BU FS
1973 Premium GEM BU (Submitting to NGC--MS66+ 5FS, with shot at MS67 5FS) 1973-D GEM BU (Sumitting to NGC)