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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 26096475, member: 68&quot;]This is the prevalent attitude and assumptions but I believe it couldn&#039;t be more wrong.&nbsp; I started collecting in 1957 and had a hoot putting together a buffalo nickel collection from pocket change and limited roll hunting.&nbsp; I had to buy a few key dates but there were a few interesting coins left in circulation; very few.&nbsp;&nbsp; Each year that went by the better coins simply continued a disappearing trick that began in 1931 because of B Max Mehl&#039;s popularization of coin collecting.&nbsp;&nbsp; By 1964 there was absolutely nothing at all to collect so people even turned to things like &#039;60-D &quot;bar&quot; nickels.&nbsp; I still have an extensive collection of these.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The Numismatist reported that more than 90% of &#039;09-S VDB cents were gone by 1940 and I&#039;d wager most of the survivors were culls and VG&#039;s.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>By contrast today there are all sorts of rare coins in circulation because people think they aren&#039;t worth collecting. The list of things that can be found is a mile long but there are still significant rarities that aren&#039;t even on most peoples&#039; lists.&nbsp; There are countless condition rarities like an XF well made 1969 quarter.&nbsp; Very few 1969 quarters were well made and 70% are gone now lost to time and misadventure.&nbsp; The survivors are generally in abysmal condition but things like an AU is possible.&nbsp; There are likely dozens of &#039;69 quarters in nice VF and better condition in the country.&nbsp; Sure you can go buy one in BU but well made ones are hard to find.&nbsp; even the services put poorly struck coins with extensive chicken scratches in high grade holders.&nbsp; People just don&#039;t notice how scarce attractive moderns can be in ANY grade or how badly worn and mangled the coins in circulation are.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are literally tens of thousands of rare coins that can be found with tens of millions of examples in aggregate.&nbsp;&nbsp; But collectors put things like a 1971-D/D nickel in nice VF+ in the reject pile as they continue their search for any nickel minted before 1960.&nbsp;&nbsp; They save a 1940 in G and pass a 1982-P in AU even though it was well struck by good dies.&nbsp; There are literally millions of nicer 1940 nickel already saved but try finding an &#039;82-P nickel in any grade at all that is attractive and well struck.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Collectors simply overlook coins made after 1964.&nbsp; This started in 1964 when the mint announced the first date freeze and caused the collapse of the modern coin market.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then in 1965 a new date freeze was announced and shortly later the switch away from silver (gold was already gone and mostly illegal to hold).&nbsp; This caused a more widespread collapse in the hobby and 60 years of people ignoring the coins made later.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now days it&#039;s hard to open a box of any pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters and not have at least one rare coin in it and a few scarce ones.&nbsp; People aren&#039;t looking because there&#039;s no silver or gold.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Numismatically this in like the 1870&#039;s when rare date old coins weren&#039;t underrepresented in change; ie- a coin with 1% of the mintage showed up 1% of the time.&nbsp;&nbsp; You could (can) find almost anything if you look at enough coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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