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Was curious as to what criteria there is for something to be considered a "Key Date" and what are the key dates for the Jefferson nickels? thanks for the help.

Google Search: Jefferson nickel key dates

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Officially, they are:

1950-D 2.6m
1939-D 3.5m
1938-S 4.1m
1938-D 5.4m
1939-S 6.6m

In average circulated condition the 50D is worth around $5, the others are worth between $1-3. Besides that, some of the earlier coins are what you might call semi-key and I'm seeing more and more of them sell for a premium on eBay, like around 25-50 cents apiece. They are listed below:

1951-S 7.8m
1955 8.3m
1949-S 9.7m
1950 9.8m
1948-S 11.3m
1946-S 13.6m
1942-D 13.9m

Hmm, I find many of those semi-key dates not infrequently. I toss many back simply because they look like G-4'ish condition. My red book does not even categorize until VF-20 condition. Maybe I am finding VF-20 condition coins actually? I find 1939 nickels all the time, but no mint-mark 99% of the time. Good to know that there is demand for the post-1939 dated Jefferson nickels. I generally have good results with nickel searches. I have found war nickels consistently and sometimes I find some pristine condition Jeffersons from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Make's it all worth it as I think most people check nickels the least it seems vs. obvious silver coins or wheat pennies that stand out.

Thanks that helps a bunch...I am guessing that low mintage is the crteria for "Key Date"
I too am finding a good amount of the semi key dates. I found another 1939d today in my wifes change pile! That was a treat.

JerrySpringer wrote:Hmm, I find many of those semi-key dates not infrequently. I toss many back simply because they look like G-4'ish condition. My red book does not even categorize until VF-20 condition. Maybe I am finding VF-20 condition coins actually? I find 1939 nickels all the time, but no mint-mark 99% of the time. Good to know that there is demand for the post-1939 dated Jefferson nickels. I generally have good results with nickel searches. I have found war nickels consistently and sometimes I find some pristine condition Jeffersons from the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Make's it all worth it as I think most people check nickels the least it seems vs. obvious silver coins or wheat pennies that stand out.

Yeah, they aren't hard to find, I find them often as well. But I was surprised to find that people are buying them. Every once in a while I do an eBay search on Jefferson nickel lots to see where the market is at and it seems like more and more the pre '60 stuff is starting to sell at a premium. I'm even seeing "unsearched" pre '60 jefferson rolls being bid up to like $4-5 per roll! I've also seen a guy trying to sell a $200 bag of pre 60s for like $400 but I haven't seen any bites on that yet. Sooner or later I can see them selling in bulk like wheat pennies. I save all pre '60s separating by decade. As for the Redbook prices, I don't know much about those but it seems like values in books like that can be far off from reality when it comes to really low end bulk coins. Especially when the market is still kind of forming.

What are you guys' yields? It would be interesting to start keeping track and get kind of a national average, like with copper pennies the consensus seems to be about 20%. My yield seems pretty consistant at about 1%.

Lots of stuff about Jefferson’s here…

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-2 ... Value.html
http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1938-1 ... Value.html
http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1942-1 ... Value.html
http://numismedia.com/fmv/prices/jefnkl/pricesgd.shtml
http://numismedia.com/fmv/prices/jefnkl ... esgd.shtml
http://numismedia.com/fmv/prices/jefnkl ... esgd.shtml
http://www.usrarecoininvestments.com/co ... m#fivecent
http://www.collectorscorner.org/pocket.html#Nickles

I rarely hold out key dates due to the condition that I usually find them in. I do separate all Jeffs into a few categories for my regulars with non negotiable prices. At least it works for me.

'38 -'49: $10/roll
'50 -'59: $8/roll
War nicks: $65/roll. Varies with silver plus a small premium
'60: $4
'61: $4
'62: $4
'63: $4
'64: $2.50
'65: $3
'66: $3
'67: $3
'68: $3
'69: $3

If anyone has a better idea for fast turn around of inventory, I am open to suggestions, but this has worked so far.

I do not yet have sufficient interest in anything from the '70s' to warrant separate inventory space in the safe.

I may begin putting rolls of single years of early Jeffs together, but with no demand, I have not seen a need.

galenrog wrote:I rarely hold out key dates due to the condition that I usually find them in. I do separate all Jeffs into a few categories for my regulars with non negotiable prices. At least it works for me.

'38 -'49: $10/roll
'50 -'59: $8/roll
War nicks: $65/roll. Varies with silver plus a small premium
'60: $4
'61: $4
'62: $4
'63: $4
'64: $2.50
'65: $3
'66: $3
'67: $3
'68: $3
'69: $3

If anyone has a better idea for fast turn around of inventory, I am open to suggestions, but this has worked so far.

I do not yet have sufficient interest in anything from the '70s' to warrant separate inventory space in the safe.

I may begin putting rolls of single years of early Jeffs together, but with no demand, I have not seen a need.

Do you get buyers at those prices?

Sure do. Collectors unwilling to search through a boatload of nicks to find what they want will always pay a premium for someone to do most of the work for them. I have several regulars, even here in rural Oregon, that are willing to drive a hour or so to buy 20 - 30 rolls of various nicks from me. I suppose that I could saturate the limited market around me in a year or two more, but most of my regulars have told friends who have told friends to the point that I may start shipping SFRBs to some of the new buyers that are more than a reasonable distance away.

Wow, I never thought to save my 60's nickels. Maybe I'll start doing that.

shinnosuke wrote:Google Search: Jefferson nickel key dates

About 78,100 results (0.38 seconds)

Nice answer Doug

I wasn't til I has requests for specific years. I determined what I thought a fair price would be by asking what my people would be willing to pay, then rounding that to the next higher dollar. I included the '64 nicks with only a $0.25 premium due to the abnormally high mintage to reflect only my time and trouble. No real demand for the '64. As far as I know, I am the only guy in mar area sorting nicks this way. As long as my market will pay this rate, I will continue to ask it. You market may be different as far as demand in concerned and there could be very little interest.

Well I for one can tell you gathering a box of 38-49 or 50-59 does take awhile. I've just completed 2 boxes and taped them up and it appears, at least in my area it takes about $35-40,000 in nickels to get 1 box of 50-59 and 1 box of 38-49 and around $12fv of war nickels. I had posted stats close to that around the first of the year. Also the funny thing is I find about the same amount of buffalo's as I do Canadian. (weird). I only started doing nickels because everything you read said, "stack nickels". That didn't make sense to me so I started sorting them. It really doesn't take that much time. I did 4 boxes in less than 2 hours tonight just before dinner. Now I'm looking for wheats wishing I had some halves to do.

As far as the selling price. If I could get what is stated I might start selling but, then again, I'm not sure I want to sell them.

reddirtcoins wrote:Well I for one can tell you gathering a box of 38-49 or 50-59 does take awhile. I've just completed 2 boxes and taped them up and it appears, at least in my area it takes about $35-40,000 in nickels to get 1 box of 50-59 and 1 box of 38-49 and around $12fv of war nickels. I had posted stats close to that around the first of the year. Also the funny thing is I find about the same amount of buffalo's as I do Canadian. (weird). I only started doing nickels because everything you read said, "stack nickels". That didn't make sense to me so I started sorting them. It really doesn't take that much time. I did 4 boxes in less than 2 hours tonight just before dinner. Now I'm looking for wheats wishing I had some halves to do.

As far as the selling price. If I could get what is stated I might start selling but, then again, I'm not sure I want to sell them.

Those stats sound about right for me too. And I would definitely start selling if I could get those prices, but I'd probably just sell the 60-69's and keep the rest. I'm currently working on filling up one whole tube of each date and mint mark. So far I think I only have full tubes for 40,41,56d, 57d,58d,59d. I have a ways to go yet for sure....

Each market is different. The factors that make a market for coins are as numerous as their are opinions about coins. For the most part, I believe that the amount of work a collector is willing to do on his own is the major factor for those of us who sort and sell. Once we know what they want, we can adjust the categories we sort to. Simply adjust to the need.

I just now discovered this ancient thread. It's pretty cool witnessing the birth of the pre-60 jefferson nickel market. I guess it probably started this way for wheaties, buffs and IHCs too at some point in the past.

Don't forget you don't have to sell only by the roll. Half rolls and 1/4 rolls can also be an option. And for pre-50 stuff that might be a semi-necessity.

Klark Cent wrote:Don't forget you don't have to sell only by the roll. Half rolls and 1/4 rolls can also be an option. And for pre-50 stuff that might be a semi-necessity.

Nah... 40s aren't too much rarer than 50s.

Wow.. Just looking back at this and was surprised on the 42 d cuni... Guess I need to pay more attention.