how many boxes to complete a jefferson nickel set?

GMan00001

Silver Member
Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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It took me from the beginning of 2007 through last week to complete my second set. When I look at the totals...approximately 275 boxes worth.

Granted a lot will depend on how lucky you get for the key dates.
 

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johloh

Jr. Member
Aug 5, 2008
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yikes!! looks like I might go and buy some of the key dates...
 

BBcardsRI

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May 29, 2008
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If you just want a set to have or to display or whatever, then buying some key dates is no problem. But there is no substitute to finding a key date in a roll. Putting that set together the CRH way is the most fun by far and it IS possible even if it does take some time.

I'm only a few away myself from that Jefferson set, and I refuse to buy a key date. =)

Good luck with your set!

~Dave
 

GMan00001

Silver Member
Dec 19, 2006
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My collection is a roll collection...

In other words a roll of each date/mintmark/variety (such as large/small mintmark)

I keep getting closer, but now its at more of a crawl.

To complete the pre-1960 Jeffersons for my books and rolls I will need 2563 nickels.

I currently have between 450 and 500 left, I don't know the exact number at the moment as I have a bunch to integrate into my collection still (haven't done that since Feb).

As of Feb 23, 2008... I still needed the following: (# left in parens)
1938-D (34)
1938-S (40)
1939-D (38)
1939-S (34)
1941-S Large S (25)
1942-D (18)
1942-P Silver (24)
1942-S Silver (20)
1943-D Silver (35)
1944-P Silver (5)
1944-D Silver (27)
1944-S Silver (32)
1945-P Silver (3)
1945-D Silver (22)
1945-S Silver (6)
1948-S (3)
1949-S (20)
1950 (23)
1950-D (40)
1951-S (23)
1955 (22)

Note...my books require 2 of all philadelphia mints and 1 of each of the rest of the pre-1960 except 1941-S Large S.

I am almost positive I will have completed 1944-P, 1945-P, and 1948-S once I enter in the rest.

So I will be down to 18 rolls that I have not completed.

And the other denominations, or older nickels... well those are for another time.

Basically, CRHing is the only economical way for me to complete my collection. Besides the thrill of the hunt is what I enjoy anyway.
 

thurmownator

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Dec 25, 2006
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BBcardsRI said:
If you just want a set to have or to display or whatever, then buying some key dates is no problem. But there is no substitute to finding a key date in a roll. Putting that set together the CRH way is the most fun by far and it IS possible even if it does take some time.

I'm only a few away myself from that Jefferson set, and I refuse to buy a key date. =)

Good luck with your set!

~Dave

I'm that way in general (refuse to buy a key date).

Only missing four (4) Ben's, (4) Ikes's (including proofs) and five (5) JFKs (including proofs) to complete each of those series; all from CRHing.

Granted, I go through more boxes "than the average bear". 8)

Good luck, and resist the urge to pay more than face.
 

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johloh

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Aug 5, 2008
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yeah, I really don't want to buy any coins from the coin store. I started coin collecting as a kid from change...and, now that I'm getting back into it its the only way to go.

but, I dont know if I have the time to go through 100s and 100s of boxes...we'll see! seems like its not too hard to get addicted!

im off to annoy some bank tellers right now! I'm curious to see if CRH in a big city is better or worse than in a small town (seems like a lot of you are from smaller towns, I'm in San Francisco). plenty of dump banks anyway I guess.
 

springcypress

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Jun 9, 2008
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Cypress Texas
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I've found that I can complete a set from 38-08 (all mints no proofs) in about 40 boxes and on average pay less than 6 cents per coin.

In general I'll find 1 of the key 5 in those boxes (38DS,39DS,50D). I also find about 1 silver nickel on average per box. There are usually a few other stragglers that I'll have to pick up, but....

The way I complete it... I have a dealer who will let me trade straight up on circulated silver nickels. I find tons of 43P's, I trade these for any I didn't find CRHing. This leaves me with ~30 silvers. I sell those for about 65 cents each on average. I then use those funds to buy the missing keys and any of the stragglers. The most I've ever been out of pocket is a little less than $5... On a couple of sets I came out ahead.

In general the 38DS,39DS set costs me around $4 for circulated examples, the 50D costs about $10-12 for circulated examples. The stragglers generally run around 10 cents each.

I go through about 10 boxes a month and have been doing this for a couple of years. I'm currently working on my 7th set.
 

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johloh

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Aug 5, 2008
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good to hear...40 boxes is much more reasonable for me...I'll try to not buy any, but Its not too bad to spend $10 to complete a set...

my first box didnt have any keys...but, I got two war nickels, a buffalo, canadian 5 cent 1983, canadian 5 cent 1939, and a 1980 british new penny
 

BBcardsRI

Bronze Member
May 29, 2008
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You can't go wrong with two war nickels and a buffalo in a box. Those buffalos are RARE out in the wild.

The 40 boxes isn't bad... but like he said... he doesn't get all the keys from that amount.

They are where things get tricky. The non keys and semi keys can be found in a very reasonable amount of boxes. Still... not like 5-10 boxes... but 25-30 or so perhaps.

I still recommend going through hand rolls. You never know how good the stash will be in those, and in the long run they ALWAYS produce better than boxes. Boxes still come in handy when you have sucked the banks near you dry of handrolls though and you need to give them a couple days to stock back up. I was going through the last of my nickel rolls like 10 minutes ago and dumped out a roll that had 7+ pre-60 keepers. Good luck finding THAT in a single fed roll. Plus... you could land some dream rolls like I did earlier this summer when I dumped out 5-7 of the same type of roll and ended up with 98 war nicks and another 100+ pre-60 keepers and only a handful of 60's and newer.

Embrace and love the handrolls!

~Dave
 

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johloh

Jr. Member
Aug 5, 2008
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do you guys just ask specifically for hand rolls? the wells fargos ive been to, when I ask for say $20 in nickels, they always seem to give me the clear plastic (machine wrapped?) ones...same as the ones in the box I got.
 

GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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I haven't even seen a handroll at any bank around me except for half dollars. Some banks I have found rewrap the coins that come through the coin machine though.

Just depends on the area.
 

BBcardsRI

Bronze Member
May 29, 2008
1,256
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Rhode Island
I'm in the smallest state in the union... so maybe I am just spoiled by having an entire states worth of stuff crammed into a small area?

I can get to 5 citizens, 2 bank of americas, 1 bank ri, 1 domestic bank, 2 washington trusts, 1 bank of newport, and like 3 different credit unions within 10-15 minutes of my house. Extend that to 20-25 minutes and it MORE than doubles. I have NO shortage of banks to hit up, and I have hit most of them.

What I have found is that different banks do things differently. I've actually specifically asked about handrolls and this is what I have found out from the tellers/managers: some small branches found in supermarkets don't even GET IN boxes of coin. Thus meaning ALL their coin is customer rolled handrolls. THESE ARE BY FAR THE BEST SOURCE! Other banks get their coin in fed boxes with the rip and tear boxes, but also accept handrolls from customers and they mix the two together. I've gotten bunches of $20 in nickels that had fed and customer rolls in them. Other banks get their new coin in the plastic wrappers... this is mostly all NEW coin and not worth the hastle. Most banks with coin counters DO NOT accept handrolls from customers as it is a hassle.

The only banks that NEVER deal in handrolls form my experience are the ones with coin counter machines. If you SPECIFICALLY ask for "CUSTOMER ROLLED COIN", then that is what you will get... IF THEY HAVE IT. Ask that and the tellers will ask each other what they have and buy it from one another and then sell it all to you. I've gone to the same supermarket branch three days in a row and CLEANED all three tellers out of nickels dimes AND quarters each time... and they have at least as much the next day... and we are talking $100+ in nickels each day.

So my words of advice to you are: go to as many banks as you can and ask specifically for customer rolled coin. If they have only a little... or none... then ask WHY THAT IS so you know for future reference.

I simply can't believe that people CAN'T find customer rolled coin. There are a lot more people bringing that stuff into banks than you think. Tellers vaults fill up fast with it.

~Dave
 

GMan00001

Silver Member
Dec 19, 2006
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Twin Cities, MN
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BBcardsRI said:
I simply can't believe that people CAN'T find customer rolled coin. There are a lot more people bringing that stuff into banks than you think. Tellers vaults fill up fast with it.

I don't know of single a bank in my area (within say 100 miles) without a coin machine...thus no customer rolled coin.
 

BBcardsRI

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May 29, 2008
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Wow Gman... I had no idea there were areas like that! In a sense I wish mine was too...

As it is, out of over 20 banks I have been to just this summer (to keep it recent) in my state I only found a SINGLE one with a coin machine. And it is a chain that only has ONE branch on my side of the bay. Their other like 10 branches are 30+ minutes away compared to this ones 10-15minutes, so they are all useless to me. But I made an account with them ANYWAY just to use that one coin counter machine. I wish I had more of them to spread my dumps around... because sometimes I make these tellers change out like 4 bags in one of my trips. =(

But I do love my handrolls... so I can't complain too much.

Sorry that you don't have access to any.

EDIT: I just remembered about the shopping center banks. Not sure how it is over there, but we have Stop and Shops up here which is a big chain of food stores (that carry a lot more than JUST food), and every single one I have been in has a citizens bank in it. Stop and Shop is a somewhat local name, but they are owned by a much bigger company that has other stores around the country under different names. So, check your stores like that in your area if you haven't already. ALSO, most Walmarts around here have a domestic bank in them. Both of these situations do not allow for a coin machine, as the space is so minimal in their little nook of the store that it isn't feasible to have one. And like I said... most of those citizens banks in the stop and shops don't even GET fed boxes and rely totally on customer coin.

Hope this helps you!

BUT BACK TO THE NICKEL SET DISCUSSION:

I did a little experiment and tallied the nickel finds from my last $400 in hand rolls and this is what I found. I thought it might be useful to some people posting in this thread as a comparison to fed rolls or as a means to see how much in face value it takes to get near a complete set:

Out of $400 in handrolls of nickels I ended up with:

39 of the 65 nickels in the set
which includes:
3 of the 11 war nickels
and
36 of the 54 NON-war nickels

I also ended up with 19 of the 21 nickels on the third page of my book, which INCLUDED the 1955 no D (under 10 mil mintage) and the 1958 no D (under 20 mil mintage).

Not too shabby in my opinion for only $400 worth of nickels. And it isn't like I only nabbed the 60-80+ million mintage nickels to tally the 39 of 65. There were quite a few lower nickels in there... in addition to the 55 and 58 already mentioned, I also nabbed the 50 no D for another sub 10 mil mintage, and also got quite a few 20 and 30 range million mintage.

Hope that info serves SOMEBODY. =)

~Dave
 

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johloh

Jr. Member
Aug 5, 2008
32
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yeah, I would imagine machine rolled would be good as long as its being rolled by a sorter at the bank that people dump into. I've called around here (san francisco) and can't find a place that has a free coin sorter...so, I'll check for some hand rolls. I'll let you guys know how it goes...
 

BBcardsRI

Bronze Member
May 29, 2008
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Rhode Island
By "free" do you mean that they are in a bank you don't belong to and you expect to use it with no charge? Or do you mean ANY counter at ANY bank that is free if you are willing to make an account?

My bank charges 8% if you aren't a member which is why I signed up with them... and is the ONLY reason I did so. You can't go wrong with opening a $25 checking account and getting a free coin machine in return... that 8% gets saved REALLY fast.

And good luck with your search for nickels. As far as the bags of nickels from the coin counters... you could try buying them from banks. Some banks refuse to sell them... like MINE, but others don't care. Though you need to be careful, because although the bag might have like $50 in war nickels that some old lady dumped in, it could also be a bag filled with dumps. I buy hundreds in nickels at a time, look through them taking ALL the pre 60 stuff out of them... then dump them in a coin machine. So have fun buying THAT bag and looking through it! =)

~Dave
 

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