Question about nickels.....

[legend76]

I have yet to CRH nickels, but read all the posts. So, what is the advantage of keeping pre-1960 nickels? Of course I know about the war nickels, the 1950-D,etc.
HH to all,
Legend

 

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[mts]

I'd like to understand this too. The way I see it, keeping pre-1960's is really all about getting complete sets. Those older nickels are much harder to come by so they sell at a slight premium to those who may need a specific nickel to finish their collection. Other than that (and war nickels), I don't think there is anything special about them.

If I've got that wrong then please set me straight. I've been keeping them when I find them but I'm not really expecting them to be worth much.

 

[legend76]

That does make sense, MTS. I think the first Jefferson album goes from 1938-1961??

 

[Diver_Down]

When it comes to nickels, you need to understand how they are graded. Keeping any common 1960 and earlier Jefferson nickel is foolish. You might get lucky selling them on eBay, but more often than not, after you factor in the fees, you might end up selling them at or below face. That doesn't make sense. Hoarding them in the event of a lift on a melt ban is silly as if/when the ban is lifted, you can always go to the bank and get a brick. Everyone is a keeper. No skunk boxes when it comes to melting. You might as well let the banks store them. Now if you want to search and cherry-pick the keepers, then you want to look for at a minimum 3-Step and above grades. Ideally, 4 and 5 Full Steps are the ones that a numismatic collector will want.

Of course, my above comments don't pertain to War Nickels. Keep every one of them. Obviously all Buffs and V Nickels are keepers.

 

[jrf30]

And one other nickel to keep. the 2009.

Yes, it is o rare that it will be worth something in the near future. If you find some 2009 nickels, throw them into the keeper pile. The 2010 is hot now, but will die in price when more people find them. Finding those and selling them now stikll works (for unknown reasons) but the 2009 is a pure keeper. :-)

 

[chow]

I started with nickels but soon learned "the juice ain't worth the squeeze". There is no advantage to keeping pre-1960 nickels unless you enjoy finding and collecting them, which some people do.

Hour-for-hour, dollar-for-dollar, and pound-for-pound, I would say halves are your best CRHing bet, followed by dimes.

Just my $0.02 and pocket lint...

 

[Diver_Down]

And one other nickel to keep. the 2009.

Yes, it is o rare that it will be worth something in the near future. If you find some 2009 nickels, throw them into the keeper pile. The 2010 is hot now, but will die in price when more people find them. Finding those and selling them now stikll works (for unknown reasons) but the 2009 is a pure keeper. :-)

Most definitely. I forgot to mention it as I haven't seen any other than in my Mint Set.

 

[GMan00001]

Although not true of everyone, for many CRH is a hobby. As a hobby the pre-1960s are essentially the equivalent of wheat pennies or silver dimes, quarters, and halves.

 

[Tattooguy67]

When it comes to nickels, you need to understand how they are graded. Keeping any common 1960 and earlier Jefferson nickel is foolish. You might get lucky selling them on eBay, but more often than not, after you factor in the fees, you might end up selling them at or below face. That doesn't make sense. Hoarding them in the event of a lift on a melt ban is silly as if/when the ban is lifted, you can always go to the bank and get a brick. Everyone is a keeper. No skunk boxes when it comes to melting. You might as well let the banks store them. Now if you want to search and cherry-pick the keepers, then you want to look for at a minimum 3-Step and above grades. Ideally, 4 and 5 Full Steps are the ones that a numismatic collector will want.

Of course, my above comments don't pertain to War Nickels. Keep every one of them. Obviously all Buffs and V Nickels are keepers.

All you say is true as far as the here and now goes, most of the Jefferson's are not worth much in lesser grades right now, but what about down the road? you say all V's and Buff's are keepers and I do for sure, but then so far I have not pulled any of either in great shape so why keep them? because they are really old, well in fifty years that not so great 1947 Jeff is going to be really old to! and wouldn't it be nice to have some then, or to know your children had some? Also as far as the melt ban being lifted goes there is this, do you think if that does come to pass that there will be lots of boxes lying around the banks waiting for you to get?

Chuck.

 

[Diver_Down]

All you say is true as far as the here and now goes, most of the Jefferson's are not worth much in lesser grades right now, but what about down the road? you say all V's and Buff's are keepers and I do for sure, but then so far I have not pulled any of either in great shape so why keep them? because they are really old, well in fifty years that not so great 1947 Jeff is going to be really old to! and wouldn't it be nice to have some then, or to know your children had some? Also as far as the melt ban being lifted goes there is this, do you think if that does come to pass that there will be lots of boxes lying around the banks waiting for you to get?

Chuck.

What about down the road? I'm sure in 50 years there will still be an adequate supply of high grade Jefferson nickels to satisfy numismatic demand. Lesser grade Jefferson nickels won't carry anymore of a premium IMHO. At the time when V's and Buff's were in circulation, the collector market was way smaller than in the 40's and 50's. At the time, you had type collectors who didn't bother with mint marks. Just a sample for each year was more than enough. Now, the collector market is much larger and beginning collectors will try and assemble a set in lower grades just to finish. Rolls of AG V's and Buff's (dateless or not) carry a premium for those collectors to search through to assemble their own fledgling set. In the end, these low grade sets aren't worth much. In 50 more years, a low grade V nickel set will still be that - low grade and not worth much. For serious collectors, there is more than an ample supply to assemble a set in EF or better.

As far as a melt ban goes, I don't think it will ever be lifted. The nickel is here to stay as a denomination. The composition might change. In which case, it will be very easy for the government to conduct a wholesale recall and melt the coins themselves. In which case, there will be more than enough warning via legislation that will need to be passed in order to change the composition. Any reliable publication (Numismatic News) will keep the public informed of such a change. In which case, you'll have a year or two to amass a hoard of nickel bricks.

 

[mts]

It is true that serious collectors do not care about low grade pre-1960 nickels. That doesn't mean that they aren't worth collecting. Many people out here save/collect common wheat cents as well. These will never be worth much. So why do people collect them? Because they are different and they are old. That's a good enough reason for me to collect them as well. You could make an argument that pre-1960 nickels actually aren't "different" and therefore aren't worth collecting. And I could buy that argument. But saying that something which will never be worth much more than face value isn't worth collecting simply because serious collectors won't want it is a bit of a stretch. By that logic most wheat cents and buffalo nickels aren't worth having and you should throw them back into circulation. But surely most people would consider it foolish to do so.

As long as people understand the value of the coin and who may want them, then collect them if you feel like it. You won't ever get rich. But neither will us penny hunters who get excited when we see 10 wheat pennies per box of cents.

 

[Diver_Down]

It is true that serious collectors do not care about low grade pre-1960 nickels. That doesn't mean that they aren't worth collecting. Many people out here save/collect common wheat cents as well. These will never be worth much. So why do people collect them? Because they are different and they are old. That's a good enough reason for me to collect them as well. You could make an argument that pre-1960 nickels actually aren't "different" and therefore aren't worth collecting. And I could buy that argument. But saying that something which will never be worth much more than face value isn't worth collecting simply because serious collectors won't want it is a bit of a stretch. By that logic most wheat cents and buffalo nickels aren't worth having and you should throw them back into circulation. But surely most people would consider it foolish to do so.

As long as people understand the value of the coin and who may want them, then collect them if you feel like it. You won't ever get rich. But neither will us penny hunters who get excited when we see 10 wheat pennies per box of cents.

You are preaching to the choir. I started out 25+ years ago searching cent rolls and the search is still on. I have zero expectation that the ton of wheaties found from the 40's and 50's will ever be worth more than 5 cent a piece (for average circulated condition). Whether I sell today or 50 years from now, there is just too much supply on the market for demand to ever spike the price.

Now, don't twist my words about making a blanket statement on pre-60 nickels. I never said they weren't worth saving. Just that one needs to understand the Step grading system and know what to keep. Try and sell a roll of pre-60 nickels on eBay in average or worse condition and see if you can make a profit after paying out the fees. From my own experience, it isn't worth the time to save every pre-60 nickel just because of the date. Takes up too much space only to find that you might break even. Besides the V's, Buff's, War nickels, (and 2009's), I only bother with 4 Step or higher.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

I have yet to CRH nickels, but read all the posts. So, what is the advantage of keeping pre-1960 nickels? Of course I know about the war nickels, the 1950-D,etc.
HH to all,
Legend

I pretty much agree with all of the replies. My Dad is a coin collector and he got me started/hooked as soon as I was old enough to read the dates, which would be about 40 years ago now. As a kid, 1959 or older was the "magic date" that meant I could add the nickel to my "keeper" pile. I still haven't changed that.

With that said, will they ever command much of a premium? I doubt it (although I have seen a few lots of pre-60 Jeffersons sell for a small premium on eBay - enough to cover fees/expenses and still leave a small profit) outside of the obvious rarer dates, war nickels, and higher grades. However, its MY collection, and I'll collect what I want. Also, as of yet I just don't search that many nickels. If I did or ever begin to, I won't keep all the common lower grade pre-60s. Maybe a roll of each date/mintmark for my personal collection and release the rest.

So if you're looking for profit, your CRHing bankroll can be better spent on something better than hoarding all pre-60 Jeffersons. If you're a collector, then collect whatever you want!

 

[mts]

Now, don't twist my words about making a blanket statement on pre-60 nickels. I never said they weren't worth saving.

I'm not trying to twist your words. You said:

Keeping any common 1960 and earlier Jefferson nickel is foolish. You might get lucky selling them on eBay, but more often than not, after you factor in the fees, you might end up selling them at or below face.

I don't think it's foolish to save common 1960 and earlier Jefferson nickels. I also don't think that it will be profitable either. And you can say the same thing about wheat cents. After you factor in fees and your time, you might end up selling common wheat cents on eBay at or below face. And they will never be worth a whole lot. But that doesn't mean that they aren't worth saving.

We are saying the same thing. As long as you enjoy saving them and understand that they have no real intrinsic value then do whatever you want. You might make a slight profit on them some day. But there are certainly better ways to make money. The biggest difference between what you and I have said is that you would only keep higher quality specimens. That's fine as well.

The most important point about this thread is that now the OP understands that people save them simply because they are old or they want to fill in a collection. Not because they have some special composition or are highly sought after by collectors. Save them if it makes you happy. But if you are saving common pre-1960 nickels to make alot of money then you will probably end up being disappointed. But hey, who knows?

 

[legend76]

I think ya'll have answered my question, and more! I have been a coin collector pretty much all of my 34 years. I have been a CRH a couple of months, which has amounted to searching almost 5 boxes of halves and coming up with 5 keepers (all 40%ers). I have a brinks box of pennies that I got a couple weeks ago, but haven't went through them yet.
I'm saving all copper pennies and all nickels for the metal value. I was just curious about the pre-1960 nickels because I saw where a lot of CRH's listed those found. I will choose to keep or cash in coins based on personal preference, just like many of you have said that ya'll do.
So anyway, after reading some reponses to this thread today, I pulled a nickel from my pocket (1983) and couldn't see ANY steps. HAHA, i guess it's been around the block!

HH to all and thanks for the various opinions,
Legend

 

[ArkhamHouse]

I have started searching nickel rolls in the last month or so with the goal of completing the 1938 - 1961 set. This is something I tried to do years ago, in the 90's. I found all of them except the 1950-D and 1955. Now I am trying again. The stresses of life are considerable, but when I am searching rolls, all of that melts away. I have to say that this the best cheap entertainment that I know of. Also, I have this notion that if I search long enough, I will find something unforgettable. Just my thoughts...

Thanks to all for the excellent posts.


-ArkhamHouse

 

[CHAINCHOMP]

I have started searching nickel rolls in the last month or so with the goal of completing the 1938 - 1961 set. This is something I tried to do years ago, in the 90's. I found all of them except the 1950-D and 1955. Now I am trying again. The stresses of life are considerable, but when I am searching rolls, all of that melts away. I have to say that this the best cheap entertainment that I know of. Also, I have this notion that if I search long enough, I will find something unforgettable. Just my thoughts...

Thanks to all for the excellent posts.


-ArkhamHouse

the other day i got a box of nickels that had 2 1955~ nickels in it...i almost fainted!
as to the ? here, i save 60+back becuz they r old, and cuz i feel like it, so isnrt that reason enough