What is the easiest way to search a full box of nickels?

I'm new to the entire "roll hunting" thing.. is there anything in particular I should look for? I do understand the "war nickel" is between 42-44 with mint mark on dome.. What is the easiest way to search for these? I seem to not notice much of a difference between the 2. Also anything else in particular I should watch for as in dates?

regards

 

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I look at each one individually, but if you want a hint of what you might have before looking through the entire roll I look at the edge to see how dark the color is on the edge of the nickel. Yesterday I got a $100 box of nickels and found 2 war nickels in one roll by looking at the edge. If the edge sticks out because it is darker than the rest of the nickels it could be a war nickel so I check them before the rest. I would recommend looking at them all because you are very likely to miss a war nickel and will miss any buffalo nickel you could have gotten if that is the only way you look for them.

 

FYI the war nickels are actually years 1942-1945, but not all 1942 nickels are silver war nickels. Also, most war nickels are a darker grayish/green color.

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Thanks for the tips guys.. This is what I did and flushed the rest... I ended up finding 1 1942 S war nickel and that's it. I think I might stick with half dollar roles if I can ever find them again.

 

Personally I keep anything pre 1960. There is a market for it. Check eBay I've seen pre 60 rolls go for inexcess of 5 bucks.

 

You still want to look at the dates on nickels, not just the edges. War nickels in good shape don't look much different from regular nickels:

 

As clorox said, check each individual coin. Edge searching is only truly effective for dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars. If you choose to edge search nickels, you will be very inneficient and miss a majority of war nickles. And also as mentioned earlier, you would miss any buffs or v nickels while at it.

 

Open rolls, dump on table, check dates, toss into bag, repeat. Nickels take training, you eventually won't have to check dates on 3/4's of the coins that you glance at due to strike and die differences.