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 Replies: 13,081 / Views: 998,873 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2224 Posts |
A couple of weeks ago I started a project where I would go to various local banks and purchase $100 boxes of nickel rolls (50 rolls) to search through. Nothing as ambitious as the Cent Project; just for something to do (I'm one of those type of people that just has to stay busy doing something!). All I'm keeping track of is the number of each date and mintmark from 1958 and before. Up to 1958, the Mint struck 3,659,954,600 nickels. From 1959 to 2006, they struck 47,850,029,758. So, on average about 1 in every 14 coins is 1958 or before. Although my survey is still in it's infancy (461 rolls searched) I'm finding pre-1958's to run about 1 per 103 coins. Of course, many have been collected, lost, retired (due to damage), melted (silver), or sit in jars in Grandma's attic! So, I'm just doing this for fun! I will post the results every time I go through a box on this thread. Anybody interested can check in occasionally to see how it is going. My goal is to complete it by the end of the year. After each box I will list the most common date found, the most common silver date found, and any "oddball" finds. (Note: I'm not keeping track of Canada Nickels. I live in the central US, and not much of that gets here. I see just from memory maybe 4 or 5 per box). After every 1000 rolls I will break down by date (pre-58) the number I've found for each date. If anybody has questions, or, if this inspires anybody to try something similar, just post here! Here are my up-to date results: 461 rolls 178 1958 or earlier (most common: 1941 (16)) 13 Silver nickels (most common: 1943S (4)) "Oddballs": 1970 Bermuda Nickel - 1 19? Buffalo nickel - 1 (a drop of date restorer showed this to be a 1916! Many more boxes to be searched next week; stay tuned if interested... *** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***Edited by copper nickel daddy
07/17/2010 12:22 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1713 Posts |
Very interesting. I look forward to seeing what you find.
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New Member
United States
22 Posts |
Thats quite a project youve started. I have been grabbing rolls of nickels from the bank as well. Ive started a circulated roll set from 1964 to date and I already have a few full sets of earlier dates, so I'm just throwing pre64 coins in a bag. Anyhow, its very surprising to see which dates you find in excess and which dates proove tough. As of now, I have full rolls of all the Philidelphia mints. And Ive been through enough Nickels so that all my Philli rolls are mostly MS coins. The only Philidelphia roll thats been tough is 1982. I only have about 3/4 of a roll, while I could have filled dozens of rolls of the other dates. And I'm finding that the Denver Mints are prooving alot harder to find the more recent dates. D mint marks from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, have been no problem, but the ones after that, well I still have alot of searching to do. Oh and The S mints, I just went and bought rolls already. But I am finding quite a few S mint marks. And whats surprised me the most, I find about one to three Silver Nickels every time I grab $30 worth from the bank. I even pulled a nice MS 1943D out of a roll. And its real close to being full steps.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2224 Posts |
Wow! That 43D is a great find! All of the silver nickels I've found look like they are just begging to be melted down! Best of luck with your roll project. Have you noticed that every once in awhile a fantastic looking Gem from a 60's date just shows up in a roll out of nowhere? Haven't found anything of that era with steps yet, though. Still looking!
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New Member
United States
22 Posts |
Actually, I find quite a few early gems. I love finding them, but in reality they arent anything too special. Nickels are about the same as Cents when it comes to people just filling jars and forgetting about them. My grandmother always cashed in Dimes and anything bigger. But Nickels and Cents got thrown into buckets. When I asked her to search her buckets, she dumped a years worth of searching on me. Well maybe not quite a tear, but she had six 5 gallon buckets of cents and another 55 gallon drum in the basement. And Nickels, she had not quite 10 5 gallon buckets. I found a few odds and ends in her change but nothing too special. The best coins I found happened to be the canadian ones for whatever strange reason. I found a 1926 Near Date Nickel, a few Tombac Nickels, and a couple of the key date Canadian Small cents. But this was before I even knew what a tombac nickel was or knew what the key dates were for canadian coins. I listed that 1926 Near Date Nickel on ebay, and I sold it for $80. Now the US coins, well nothing too special in there. I found a handfull of buffalo Nickels(one had a date 1936) and a bunch of common wheaties. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2584 Posts |
Awesome thread! I heavily did nickel searching in the early to mid 1990s and then only occasionally from there on. I kept track of how many coins I searched and wrote down total numbers of pre-1960- I kept all these coins until a few years ago when I had to move and couldn't move the nickels due to their weight. I sold all my pre-1960 coins (including the 50D key) for about 10 cents apiece. My totals are: 88,600 coins searched (2215 ROLLS, or $4430) 1510 pre-1960 coins (1:58.7) # Buffalo nickels: 10 (1 dateless, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1936, 1937)- amazing I essentially got 10 different # key dates (38D, 38S, 39D, 39S, 50D): 1, a 1950D # of other low mintage coins (let's say <20 million minted): 38- 15, 42D-3, 46S-6, 48S-8, 49S-6, 50: 9, 51D-5, 51S-0, 52S-16, 53S-15, 55-7, 58-29 Most common pre-1960 date: 1959D- 232 # silver nickels: 36 (42P-1, 43P-13, 43S-5, 44P-4, 44D-2, 45P-6, 45S-5) Best ratio of pre-1960: 1:44.4 (twice) Worst ratios: 1:222 (whole bank box of 50 rolls searched and only 9 pre-1960; 60% of the coins were 1995 BU pieces, so maybe that didn't count); 1:142 (50% of all the coins were 1995 BU). When I started this around 1993, my chances of getting a pre-1960 coin over total coins was typically around 1:50. In my most recent batch (2/16/07), it was 1:90, but I only did 25 rolls (1000 coins) and got 11 pre-1960 (with a 40S and 43S silver as being the best). I look forward to watching this thread! Edited by mycrob
01/28/2008 2:45 pm
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Valued Member
United States
243 Posts |
I seem to find an awful lot of 64-64D nickels ,just about all seem to be in excellent condition ,should I keep them?
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Valued Member
United States
473 Posts |
Don't bother FordF150...2.8 billion or so were minted that year. if you're trying to fill a book, pick out the nicest one you can find and save it. If you're looking to complete a roll, save all the 64s you find with nice detail in the hair. If you can find some with a two or three steps still showing great, but its tough to find one with any more detail than that after 40+ years of handling.
--Gary
EDIT: this looks like it will be a wonderful thread CND. I too have been getting into Nickel searching and have been saving all my pre-62. I've got a half-filled Ziplock I keep them in. I think I'll count up my totals and continue to keep track from now on. Here's to finding a 50D or two!
--Gary
Edited by GFR3
01/27/2008 1:02 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2224 Posts |
I would love to find a 50D! There is a post on a thread somewhere in here that somebody who was searching back in the late 60's (I believe) found everything except for a 50D. So, I would love to find one of those! We'll see; looking through 100 rolls tomorrow!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2584 Posts |
25,000 rolls is a huge amount to search in one year. Best of luck to you in this interesting project. If you search that many, I can definitely see you getting at least a few of the 5 major keys.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2589 Posts |
i went through 1000 dollars worth of nickels last month and found some amazing stuff, two major die breaks, an off center strike, a dozen wartime, six no date buffalos, three full dates all from the thirties, a gold plated buffalo from 1935, but my eyes popped out of my head when I found an xf 1883 liberty head with cents!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2224 Posts |
I'm in the middle right now of checking through today's 100 rolls; halfway through box one. Was going to wait until I was done but had to respond with awe to the 1883 Liberty! WOW! Love to get just a worn out old Liberty, let alone that! Some kid must have got into trouble for spending that!
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Valued Member
United States
473 Posts |
That's one heck of a find there Xavier! I wish I could have seen the look on your face when you saw that....your jaw must have dropped to the table!
I found a 1945P silver today in the register. Not a "roll find", but made my day
--Gary
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New Member
42 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2224 Posts |
Here are today's results:
100 rolls
36 1958 or before
2 silver nickels (43P,45S)
Found a couple of "poor man's" (my term) 2005 Bison reverse with the speared back. If I had the equipment to photograph I'd post a photo. I've seen photos of these online, though; the one that the diebreak leads from the rump of the buffalo up through D in United. One of the two I found the diebreak did not quite make it to the rim, and the other one was an earlier die state, just barely showing the beginning of a break. Of no value, probably, but interesting.
Grand totals up to now:
561 rolls searched
214 1958 or before (most common: 1941 - 22)
15 silver nickels (most common: 1943P & 1943S - 4 each)
"Oddball Finds"
1970 Bermuda Nickel
Dateless Buffalo (1916 after date restored)
Should be doing another 100 tomorrow; stay tuned!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
764 Posts |
hmm....i can see it now on the front page of the newspaper: US TREASURY RUNS OUT OF NICKELS; METAL TOO EXPENSIVE SO REPLACEMNT COINS WILL NOT BE STRUCK!
thats a way to put yourself if the history books.
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Replies: 13,081 / Views: 998,873 |
Posted 01/27/2008 01:32 am
