What to search for?

[avidbrandy]

So I just sorted my first box of nickels for fun, and I was wondering what I should be pulling?

obviously silver nickels. I pulled anything pre-1950 as well for now, and all 2009s. Is there anything else I should pull?


Didn't find any silver in this first box. Got 14 2009s though and 2 dateless buffalos.

[thesilvertiger]

Bumping up your search to pre-1960 is one option you may want to consider. If you end up really liking to search nickels (I sure do), you may be able to find a few rolls worth of dates like 1951-S (7.7 million minted) and 1955-P (8.2 million minted). While not considered rare, they are far from common and sell for a nice premium in rolls on ebay. Oh yeah, and it helps me to stack more since I am only keeping pre-1960 to have more money to go through more nickels. I will stack all nickels just ahead of a composition change to avoid having to sort by date like the pennies.

[avidbrandy]

Oh thank you I like that idea. The issue I was encountering was that I've always just bought boxes and kept them, and if I'm always holding onto it all I can't very well search for more and more without amassing a very large amount of nickels.

[chris6084]

I stopped keeping 2009's. They seem pretty rare in some parts of the country, but here in SA, I find tons of them, and I had too many. I just dump them back in the pile now.

[galenrog]

A short list of errors is helpful. Found a '55D D over S last week. Have found a few clipped nicks also. I put all '38 - 49 nicks, less the war nicks in marked rolls. Same with the '50 - 59, once I have checked for errors. War nicks in marked rolls. Buffs in 3 cats: No date, partial date, full date. I sell '38-49 for $8 per roll, and '50-59 for $6. My CL ad also solicits requests for specific years from 1960 to date that I will put together in paper rolls for a $0.50 premium, date and mint mark specific for $1.00 extra. this brings in an additional $100 - $150 every month.

Update: Sold several rolls today. 14 rolls of '38 - '49 (no war nicks) @ $7.00/roll plus 10 rolls of '50 - '59 @ $6.00/roll. Sure beats simple hoarding.

Inventory the safe this week. Everything but the silver and gold goes to CL and EBay. Picking up over $1000 nicks and $300 cents. Black fingers here we come.

[JadeDragon]

Watch for pre-82 Canadian Nickels as they are 99.99% Ni Hope you find a few of them.

[ZenOps]

All Canadian pure nickels are rare-ish. 1.85 billion total from 1922 to 1981.

By comparison we minted 1.66 billion 3.24 gram 98% copper with tin content pennies in the two years of 1978 and 1979 (best pennies made in North America!)