Found my War Nickel(s)...

Rosco53

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Snapped my 14,000 nickel dryspell for War Nickels. Pulled 9(!) out of this bag. New personal high. Nothing special condition wise, but the years are:
1942Px2
1943P
1943S
1944D
1944Px2
1945S
1945P

Also found 32 BU/AU nickels ranging from 53 to 2011. All of them had a slight goldish hue to them. May have a couple "proofs" (think the term is Special Mint Set?) as well:
S20190220_0025.jpg S20190220_0026.jpg
S20190220_0009.jpg S20190220_0010.jpg

Not a bad haul. Sadly my bank sends out their coins Thursday before hours, so no chance to run back through and hope for Dimes or Quarters. Did get all the cent bags they had at least, so heres hoping I find something there too. Happy hunting everyone!
 

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galenrog

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Feb 19, 2006
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Beats my average on war nicks by quite a bit, rookie.

You probably posted in on a thread I did not read, but how do you currently define a keeper when searching Jeffs?

Time for more coffee.
 

baddbluff

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Apr 22, 2011
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Nice score! I think aside from WLHs, war nicks are my favorite coins to find in the wild. Iā€™d love to find some bank thatā€™d sell bags to me.

galenrog- u should probably lay off the coffee a little - too much caffeine isnā€™t good for you. Trust me, Iā€™m a doctor (of sorts).
 

Twitch

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Feb 1, 2010
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Nice finds Roscoe. I had a 4 war nickel, 4 Buffalo ba last week and thought I was doing well. Love the ā€˜66 and ā€˜65 Jeffā€™s. Very nice.
 

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Rosco53

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Beats my average on war nicks by quite a bit, rookie.

You probably posted in on a thread I did not read, but how do you currently define a keeper when searching Jeffs?

Time for more coffee.

Oh yeah, definitely beat my average too. Prior to this I had found 76 war nickels in 135 bags, think my best was 3 in one. My current definition of a keeper for nickels is:
Anything older than 1939
All War Nickels
Any Proofs
"Blatant" Errors (Cud, lamination, cracks mainly)
Non-Canadian Foreigns
Canadians I'm keeping one from each year I find, if I find another I keep the one in better condition.
Same with Dates for Jeffersons. The 30 AU/Bu ones I found yesterday simply replaced my prior pulls in the folders I keep.
I do keep all of the following though: all 1950, '39-'41 D/S, '42D, '55P, S mintmarks for: '46, '48, '49, '51.
 

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Rosco53

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Nice score! I think aside from WLHs, war nicks are my favorite coins to find in the wild. Iā€™d love to find some bank thatā€™d sell bags to me.

galenrog- u should probably lay off the coffee a little - too much caffeine isnā€™t good for you. Trust me, Iā€™m a doctor (of sorts).

I'll assume WLH are Walking Liberty halves? I haven't been able to search many halves, bought $100 from my bank but they want a fee for rolling so holding off on doing more. Personally my favorites to find are Buffaloes, though anything old/foreign is great too. Found 2 mercs but just not a big fan of dimes.
 

galenrog

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Feb 19, 2006
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Thanks for the notice of my sign off line, baddbluff. Actually, I do not drink much coffee. I use the line as a sign off for that post. Similar to an acquaintance from decades ago used the phrase ā€œnothing followsā€ to demonstrate the end of his written communications. Odd. Quirky. Harmless.
 

Uncleslick18

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Oct 24, 2011
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I drink a boat load of coffee and am impatiently awaiting the results of your penny bags!
 

GMan00001

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In my heavy CRHing years (roughly 2006 to 2013), I only 5 instances where I found more 9 or more war nickels in a bag or box.

14 in 09/2007 from a $200 bag
9 in 03/2008 in a $100 bag
10 in 01/2009 in a $100 bag
11 in 09/2013 in a bag
and my one war nickel dump find of 96 in a partial box of 36 rolls in 07/2007

Most Buffalos in a bag 24 in 12/2011 in a $200 bag (next closest 6 in a bag)

Most V-Nickels in a bag 4 in 07/2008 in a $200 bag (the bag also had 4 buffalos)


My nickel keeper definition is anything 1959 or older. Basically similar to the end date of wheaties and silver dime/quarters. Nickel mintage figures jumped up substantially in the 1960s. I know most of them aren't worth more than face, but keeping a few extra nickels from each bag/box wasn't really costing me much either. Even when I was searching heavy it was usually less than $5/week on average.

Although, I haven't tried to sell any to date, looking at ebay, it looks like misc rolls of circulated Jeffersons from 1938-1959 do sell for at least a little premium over face. For example, I see 6 average circulated rolls (one roll each from 1954-D, 1955-D, 1956-D, 1957-D, 1958-D, and 1959-D) sold for ~$30 with free shipping. $12 face for $30 and those are generally pretty common dates.
 

huntsman53

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Jun 11, 2013
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Congrats on the Nickel finds! The Jefferson Nickels are the most overlooked Series of all denominations struck since the 1930's. However, I love the Cobalt and Gun Metal toned BU Jefferson Nickels and buy them whenever I can.
 

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Rosco53

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I drink a boat load of coffee and am impatiently awaiting the results of your penny bags!

First bag down and nothing to write home about. 26 2009's, 12 Canadian, 15 Wheats with the oldest being a 1936. Nothing error wise.
 

galenrog

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Feb 19, 2006
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What power magnifier are you using? I use a 10x flexible desk mount to help me identify major problems of all kinds.

I also notice more minor die chips and die cracks with this tool. I do not, however, push these as significant when dealing with any collectors. I have a list of potential buyers, and set them aside.

Enjoy yourself, rookie.

Time for more coffee.
 

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Rosco53

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Mar 17, 2018
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What power magnifier are you using? I use a 10x flexible desk mount to help me identify major problems of all kinds.

I also notice more minor die chips and die cracks with this tool. I do not, however, push these as significant when dealing with any collectors. I have a list of potential buyers, and set them aside.

Enjoy yourself, rookie.

Time for more coffee.

Not sure on the magnifier, this is what I have but pretty sure theres no way its 250x...
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Mic...3978&sr=8-3&keywords=pluggable+usb+microscope

Only thing i don't like is the arm doesn't let you move it far enough out to fit an entire coin in. I'm tempted to rig something out of my technic legos as a substitute
 

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Rosco53

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I've searched just over 207 bags of cents so far, "average" 26 wheats per, but the median is 18 (allowing for the dumps I've found).
 

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Rosco53

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I average 6 wheats per box, with a large number searched.

I've searched just over 207 bags of cents so far, "average" 26 wheats per, but the median is 18 (allowing for the dumps I've found).
 

Uncleslick18

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Oct 24, 2011
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I donā€™t keep track because of the way I do it, but Iā€™ve been doing $200 per week for the last several weeks, and I find probably 10-12 wheats per box
 

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