Hey everyone, I am putting together a circulated set of Jefferson Nickels for fun. I am wondering what I should be on the lookout for when searching the rolls? Die varieties? war nickels? westward series? etc... All your help is appreciated.
It depends how much time you want to spend. I don't look for any varieties, personally. The modern nickels are nothing special, really. Of course you want to look for anything with value above face (which, really, all nickels are....you could melt them for about 6 cents each were it legal.) Anyway, the war nickels, naturally, plus any key/semi-key dates: 1938 D, 1938 S, 1939 D, 1939 S, 1942-D (non-war), 1950-D. Plus I've found the 1950 plain and 1955 plain are especially hard to find in circulation. Basically I keep any nickels 1964 and earlier that I find in change. Good luck!
I have two I believe to be 1930 series nickels. One nickel is so warn I can't heads or tails out of it as to date and Mark type. Another one has a "D" stamped under the "FIVE CENT" discription. Any idea as to year? From what I can tell my "D" B Nickel is a 1913 Mint, Not in the best of shape, but IDed going through my 1993 BlackBook.
I save anything below 1960 if it is in good shape. Except, that is, for the wartime (42-45) silver content nickels. Keep those in any condition. I found the 50-D, but still need 12 others to complete my collection from circulation. Here in Illinois, I find an occasional Canada nickel, so I started a collection of those also.
In my finds, I am finding Canadian coins too, not sure I want to save them nor what to do with them if I do. The other day I passed up buying a Canadian Coin book, but will probably go back and pick it up just in case I choose to keep the coins I have been coming across. Where does their vaule lay, in general, in Canada, or (?)
You should be looking for a good book to tell you this. You should be looking for a good book to tell you this. Red Book or Cherry Pickers Guild.
Buy yourself a couple nickel folders and start a reference collection. Fill them with the best condition you can find of each date. Then when you find a suspected variety you'll have a coin in your collection with which to compare it. And you just might be surprised how fun and challenging finding nice specimens can be.
On average you will find 1 wartime nickel per box and a buffalo every 6 or 7 boxes, liberty's maybe every 100 boxes ive not found one yet and ive gone through about 120 boxes I think.
You must have quite a stash of '64 nickels. I sometimes find 2 or 3 of them in a single roll, and rarely open a roll without finding one. They are the bane of my existence, because I'll be roll searching and find what appears to be an old nickel, and every time it's a 1964.
