Stupid Nickels

bottlecap · Feb 13, 2016

Anyone else ever read the threads about nickels on here as everyone's "go to" for silver and want to punch your computer screen? Nickels are horrible for me and I always see people posting about going to nickels when they hit a silv drought. Just wondering if anyone else goes through box after box of nickels without any silver. No idea why they are so bad around here.

kingskid1611 · Feb 13, 2016

Not that many silver nickels, would be my guess.

mxh5891 · Feb 13, 2016

bottlecap said:
Anyone else ever read the threads about nickels on here as everyone's "go to" for silver and want to punch your computer screen? Nickels are horrible for me and I always see people posting about going to nickels when they hit a silv drought. Just wondering if anyone else goes through box after box of nickels without any silver. No idea why they are so bad around here.

I don't think there is a go to denomination for silver. Its all just luck of the draw anymore.

Liu21 · Feb 13, 2016

In my area, Dimes are the go too for silver... Never had more than 2+ boxes of skunk... CRH varies between regions/areas...

galenrog · Feb 13, 2016

While nickels are not my "go to" coins to look for silver, I find that each box or bag is nearly always productive. Old, unusual, error, foreign. The list goes on. Rare is the box that does not have several keepers that will bring a premium in the near future.

Were I to look exclusively for silver, dimes and halves would be my preference.

bottlecap · Feb 13, 2016

I've always wondered why it varies by region so much, guess folks around here are very in-tune to picking out war nickels!!

Quin · Feb 13, 2016

bottlecap said:
Anyone else ever read the threads about nickels on here as everyone's "go to" for silver and want to punch your computer screen? Nickels are horrible for me and I always see people posting about going to nickels when they hit a silv drought. Just wondering if anyone else goes through box after box of nickels without any silver. No idea why they are so bad around here.

I have been finding probably about 1 war nickel per box, but in just about 3 boxes I have picked up 6 V nickels, 1 buffalo, 2 2009s and some nice shiny ones so it's definitely not all about silver. Well, for me at least. I love to find rare ones or old ones in addition to the war nics. Half dollars and dimes just don't seem to be very productive or efficient compared to nickels. Happy hunting!

ThePt78Gamer · Feb 13, 2016

Nickels are my favorite denomination to search. Followed by cents, halves, dimes and quarters in that order. There is such a large variety of stuff to find in the 5-cent coin... V-Nicks, Buffaloes, War nicks, errors, proofs you name it. My best box had 5 wars and an 1898 V-nick. That was some fun hunting.

zach attack · Feb 13, 2016

Recently went through 4 boxes, they yielded 1 buffalo and 2 war nickels. Its a hit or miss for me, sometimes you find em and other times you don't. Cwr are always the best to look through though. HH, Zach.

fistfulladirt · Feb 14, 2016

I've been into crh since the mid-1970's. Personally I find nickels boring, silver finds slim.
Dimes for me have consistently out-produced every other denomination, if we are just talking silver.

baddbluff · Feb 14, 2016

If you average about 1 silver dime per box, that's almost equal to 1 40% per half box, dollar for dollar (2 dime boxes @ $250 each equal 1 $500 half box, and 2 silver dimes equal 0.145 oz vs 0.148 oz in a 40%er). If you only average 0.5 war/box, then 5 boxes ($500) will yield 0.141 oz of silver, roughly the same amount of silver. Grated, you're searching a lot more boxes of dimes and nicks to get that same amount of silver.
My actual #s:
1 dime/box (0.145 oz/$500)
2 halves/box (about 0.36 oz/$500 - some are 90s, most 40s)
1 war/box (0.28 oz/$500)

For me, halves are best, followed by nicks then dimes. I can see how people prefer nicks in certain areas, especially where halves are dry. Throw in a Buffalo and a semi-key date every few boxes and they can be pretty appealing.

bottlecap · Feb 15, 2016

Well I may as well go for broke, I'll get another box of nickels today, went through a box yesterday that yielded nothing, no key dates, no wars, obviously no buffalo's, I will search nickels until I can't stand the sight of another 64D!

bottlecap · Feb 16, 2016

Ended up getting one war nickel out of yesterday's box. Got another box today that yielded 3 war nicks and several pre 1950's, even got some 1940's in really good shape, pretty much full step coins. Persistence pays I guess. Will try to locate halves tomorrow.

mxh5891 · Feb 17, 2016

bottlecap said:
Ended up getting one war nickel out of yesterday's box. Got another box today that yielded 3 war nicks and several pre 1950's, even got some 1940's in really good shape, pretty much full step coins. Persistence pays I guess. Will try to locate halves tomorrow.

That is the nature of CRH. You have to endure the bad with the good.

TheHatter · Feb 17, 2016

Maybe someone can enlighten me, since this is my first post and I'm new to the hobby. But I thought silver was only found in dimes, quarters, halves, etc, that are dated 1964 or older. I just threw a ton of sorted nickels in a jar, without paying very much attention to them. I'm sure the info can be found elsewhere on the forum, but while I'm here, I may as well ask you guys.

ThePt78Gamer · Feb 17, 2016

TheHatter said:
Maybe someone can enlighten me, since this is my first post and I'm new to the hobby. But I thought silver was only found in dimes, quarters, halves, etc, that are dated 1964 or older. I just threw a ton of sorted nickels in a jar, without paying very much attention to them. I'm sure the info can be found elsewhere on the forum, but while I'm here, I may as well ask you guys.

TheHatter read the newby sticky thread since you're new. And to answer your question, nickels dated 1942-1945 with a large mintmark on the back above the dome are war nickels; made with a 35% silver alloy. And halves are 90% silver from 1964 and older, but are 40% silver from 65'-'70.

TheHatter · Feb 17, 2016

Thanks for the info. Reading and printing the sticky.

Pete_Iredale · Feb 19, 2016

I just like nickels because of the large variety of things to find. I like foreign coins, and have already found at least one of 7 different foreigns so far this year, out of 14,520 nickels searched. I've also found three 2009s, three war nickels (on a big skunk streak there, I usually find about one per box), and 125 pre-1960s. But the coup de grace is the 1950-D I found in damn near MS! I feel bad for the poor collector who lost it, but man is it pretty!

bottlecap · Feb 19, 2016

Pete_Iredale said:
I just like nickels because of the large variety of things to find. I like foreign coins, and have already found at least one of 7 different foreigns so far this year, out of 14,520 nickels searched. I've also found three 2009s, three war nickels (on a big skunk streak there, I usually find about one per box), and 125 pre-1960s. But the coup de grace is the 1950-D I found in damn near MS! I feel bad for the poor collector who lost it, but man is it pretty!

Nice on the 1950 D, have yet to find one. As far as the pre 1960 nickels go I have a small bucket full of them and unless they are in excellent shape I don't keep them anymore, they are kind of like post 2001 halves, I recently did a box of halves that had over 200 dollars worth in newer NIFC halves, I couldn't keep them all in addition to the bucket of post 2001 halves I already have, it would cut too deep into my revolving 500 bucks I use to coin roll hunt. Also I hate foreign clad, don't know why but I hate it, especially Canadian anything(other than old or AG of course), this is just me though, if you like the foreign stuff a lot maybe I'll send you mine!

baddbluff · Feb 19, 2016

Pete_Iredale said:
I just like nickels because of the large variety of things to find. I like foreign coins, and have already found at least one of 7 different foreigns so far this year, out of 14,520 nickels searched. I've also found three 2009s, three war nickels (on a big skunk streak there, I usually find about one per box), and 125 pre-1960s. But the coup de grace is the 1950-D I found in damn near MS! I feel bad for the poor collector who lost it, but man is it pretty!

Nice score on the 50-D. I found 1 50-D and 1 39-D in rolls and both are nice AU coins too. Must've been in someone's collection.