I just recently started searching some rolls. I bought $10 in nickels the other day and the oldest thing I found was a 1954D. I also found a 69s and 70s but they are pretty banged up. My goal is to put together a set of Jeffersons from circulation and I have a question. Naturally, I want to put together the best conditioned coin from circulation I can find. What I have been looking for in nickels 1990 to date are coins that I can count the steps on the back and no obvious marks or dings to the Jeffersons face on the obverse. I've also been looking at rim damage and picking the best from each year and setting it aside. The rest I'm going to reroll and trade out when and where I can. Am I looking for the right things when I look at these nickels? I'm using a pretty powerful magnifying glass when I look. What condition should I be looking for on the older nickels. I have yet to find anything older than 1994 that had any steps still visible.
What you are doing is time consuming, but it is a very good way to assemble a series collection. I think you will probably end up buying many of the pre-1960 nickels.
Are you just buying rolls from a bank? I bought a really nice OBW roll off of ebay but you have to be really cautious to buy them online. Nickels are really tricky expecially when it comes to Jeffersons and war nickels. My guess is you're looking for errors as well, right?
I always try to tell people that roll searching is sort of a waste of time. Way to many people get coins from banks in rolls, search them, return to another bank. The rolls you search today may well have been searched many, many times. If you can afford them, as a bank for a bag of those Nickels. Usually if they have them, they've been sitting in a vault for many years.
I do not do any roll searching and what I do is fill a slot from pocket change. Then when i find a nicer one I will upgrade what is in the book. So it sounds like what you are doing is okay. I do about the same thing for cents, nickels, dimes and quarters. I just do it for fun and know that they will never be worth a whole lot. Enjoy!
I'm beginning to believe the same thing. I work 50 to 60 hours a week so all I want to do on my days off is relax. Going through the rolls I pick up is a good way to relax and get off of my feet. As far as pre-1960's go, I can definitely see myself picking those up as singles as most of the ones I've found from the 50's have been pretty roughed up. I've only bought four rolls from the bank. I live in a very small town and the people around here are constantly rolling change and taking it to the convenience store and the grocery store and cashing them in. I've got the majority of rolls from those two places as I have a suspicion that my chances of finding anything decent will come from customer wrapped rolls at those places. As far as errors go, I haven't really been in the hobby long enough to actually know an error when I see it. I have been checking the red book and when I find a coin from a year that has an error listed I set it aside and I will take them to the coin shop in Lubbock and have an expert look at them. Once I see an error first hand and know how to pick it out on my own, spotting them will become much easier for me. I don't learn much from comparing a coin in hand to a picture....I have to have the coins physically in hand and do a side by side comparison. I'm pretty sure my collection isn't going to make me rich. I do it for the fun and relaxation. Plus, my son is really getting into putting books together too so it's something we can do together. One thing I have found to this point...putting together a collection from circulation is challenging, but it's also a heck of a lot cheaper to this point that the baseball card collection that I have built.
Well - I also compare them by hand and yes it is challenging. And I still only have found 2009 cents. So something to look forward to. And yes this makes a good father son activity. I still remember doing this with my father back in the late 60's early 70's.
