Want to try nickels!

n8dagr8345 · Oct 30, 2011

Any suggestions on how to make my virgin nickel experience a good one? I have read for the war nickels you can just check for the large mint mark above Monticello. Any other suggestions? Anything else worth looking for?

AGBlex · Oct 30, 2011

V nickels.
buffalo nickels.
gold coins! haha i wish
older canadian nickels are cool i just keep them as an extra
the 1938 and 39 nickels are nice as well
along with 1950 D nickels

Dok Holliday · Oct 30, 2011

n8dagr8345 said:
Any suggestions on how to make my virgin nickel experience a good one?

Wear a condom. :tongue3:

I found a old Witmann book for Jefferson Nickels 1938-1961 that I had when I was a kid that had about 12 nickels in it in a old box. Luckily, 4 of them were the war nickels. I was doing dimes for a few months, and added nickels to my searching. My goal is to fill the book and get as many war nickels as I can. I also save all nickels from before 1960. If they don't upgrade a coin my book, fill a hole in my book, are Canadian (which I'm saving as a very small savings plan to buy bullion) or are Buffalo or Silver War Nickels, I throw them in a bag. When my book is done I plan to check everything in the bag for mint errors (like a 1939 doubled Montecellio) and then sell the rest on eBay as an unsearched bag of Jefferson Nickels (No Silver War). Probably get 0.06 - 0.08 per nickel. Beats going to the bar and wandering the streets I guess.

BuffaloBoy · Oct 30, 2011

Look for the following dates:

pre 1960(i keep all pre 1960, some people keep pre 1955)
1950-d, the key date of the series. I have yet to find one.
Nickels from 1942-1945 with a mintmark above the dome on the back are 35% silver war nickels(note: some 1942 nickels are not silver, and the 1942d nickel is not silver)
semi-key dates include: 1938d 1938s 1939d 1939s, some say 1955p is hard to find, i have plenty of them though.
Some people also save 2009p and 2009 nickels, they are the lowest mintage year for modern nickels. Since 2009 I have searched 40+ boxes and only have 3x 2009d and 1x 2009p.

And as stated before, Buffalo nickels(which are dated 1913-1938, most don't have dates on them due to wear), and V nickels(1883-1912). I have found a 1904 v nickel back in december of last year. They are out there.

I also save any foreign coins found.

Generic_Lad · Oct 30, 2011

It really depends on how much time you want to spend doing nickels. If you want to get through a box of nickels the fastest (and are in the Denver or San Fransisco supply district, that is you rarely find Philadelphia coins in pocket change) look at the date if the coin is flipped on the obverse and look for a mintmark, on pre-1965 issues, mintmarks (if any) are located to the right of the Monticello, with the exception of the war years, if you find a mintmark there, flip it over and date check it. Of course, this means you might miss out on Philadelphia older nickels or errors and such, but nickels are interesting in that you can really spend some time and find a lot more errors and interesting, older coins than you can in any other denomination. Since nickel is fairly hard, I've found more die errors through nickels than I have in any other denomination :icon_thumright:

brendan1414 · Oct 30, 2011

Dok Holliday said:
n8dagr8345 said:

Any suggestions on how to make my virgin nickel experience a good one?

Click to expand...

Wear a condom.

I found a old Witmann book for Jefferson Nickels 1938-1961 that I had when I was a kid that had about 12 nickels in it in a old box. Luckily, 4 of them were the war nickels. I was doing dimes for a few months, and added nickels to my searching. My goal is to fill the book and get as many war nickels as I can. I also save all nickels from before 1960. If they don't upgrade a coin my book, fill a hole in my book, are Canadian (which I'm saving as a very small savings plan to buy bullion) or are Buffalo or Silver War Nickels, I throw them in a bag. When my book is done I plan to check everything in the bag for mint errors (like a 1939 doubled Montecellio) and then sell the rest on eBay as an unsearched bag of Jefferson Nickels (No Silver War). Probably get 0.06 - 0.08 per nickel. Beats going to the bar and wandering the streets I guess.