Realcent.org

I've sorted/collected nickels for 2-3 years. Somehow, when I started I collected from 1964 and older. Now I read posters who says they save pre-1960 nickles, and other who say they save 1963 and older. I don't seem to find anyone keeping 1964 nickles.
Why should someone not collect older than '59, or older than '63? Conversely, why not collect newer nickles than '59 or newer than '63.
I admit that about 40% of my saved nickels are '64's...are they not worth keeping?

Just look at the mintage of the 64's I started saving pre 64 then when to pre 60. Really it just what you want that counts.

1964 was the last year with the mint mark on the back. Everyone saves 1964 and back dimes, quarters and halfs as they are 90% silver. Some people just save all nickels... some say 2009 is a keeper due to low mintage numbers... I just keep them all!

Just something to think about: take all your 1964 and 1964D nickels, save the best 40 of each, make a solid date roll of those, and dump the rest into your "common nickel" pile. Just a suggestion.

Some people save 1938-1961 because that's what is in Whitman Jefferson Nickels book one.

Some save 1938-1963; there are none with mintages over 300 million.

If you save pre-60 you would have only 2 with mintages over 200 million: 43P war nickel and 41P.

I was thinking last night of saving all dates with mintages under 50 million. There are 41 of those, and they are all 1959 and before, except for the 2009P and 2009D. By contrast, 1964 and 1964D have mintages over 1 billion, at least 20x as many.

I also thought it would be cool to collect just the S mints. They divide neatly into subgroups: four 4-coin and one 3-coin: 38-41 prewar, 42-45 warnicks, 46-49 postwar, 51-54, and then 68-70 from after the 3-year span without mintmarks. Wonder how many boxes it would take to get all those.

Point being, the stopping point is flexible... reasons are varied... and bottom line, all nickels are worth saving.

Stnick38, welcome to realcent and thanks for starting off with an interesting thread. Hope you'll have a good time here.

uthminsta wrote:Just something to think about: take all your 1964 and 1964D nickels, save the best 40 of each, make a solid date roll of those, and dump the rest into your "common nickel" pile. Just a suggestion.

Great suggestion! I come across a bunch of nice looking 64s but always throw them into the pile with everything else because they're so darn common, but I like the idea of having a couple of solid date rolls.

I usually separate the 63s and older, but I keep them all. For me, it's mostly just habit and preference.

I keep all of my nickels. The 64's are very common...I believe that year minted the most nickels. I've been keeping a full roll of nickels, sorted by year and mint as far back as I can find. The 2009's have been very elusive, as I've only managed to find just a few.

I used to save 1971-P nickels because they are the only nickels to have a value of more than a nickel in the red/blue books.

I think 1971-P has the lowest mintage between 1963 and 2007 or 2008.

Then again who would even want 1971-P coins? Lower than even the 1971-D which is odd and the S-mints of the time

It seems odd to me how common the 60s and 70s S mints are. I get a lot more 1970 S's than Ds, for example.

I keep every single nickel that crosses my path and I go out of my way to get them. I keep all 63 and older in the oldies bucket. Have only found 2 2009's

slvrbck wrote:I keep every single nickel that crosses my path and I go out of my way to get them. I keep all 63 and older in the oldies bucket. Have only found 2 2009's

ditto

adagirl wrote:

slvrbck wrote:I keep every single nickel that crosses my path and I go out of my way to get them. I keep all 63 and older in the oldies bucket. Have only found 2 2009's

ditto

Me too!

Ha I'm trying to send nickels to the banks.

One thing I find interesting is no one seems to care about the 1965 - 1971 nickels which also have low mintage numbers. I don't hold them, but there are a couple dates that have mintage numbers that are relatively low.

I try to hold 2 rolls from each mint and year from 2010 and forward. The rest are 1963 and back. Oh right and the 2009's.

~JobIII

I keep all of my nickels as well. They are 'real money' I keep older than 1960 in seperate. I have rolled all newer than 1960 in their own rolls. They may someday be like the pre 1965 dimes, quarters and halves! Maybe not quite so valuable but at least they are worth face in intrinsic value!

The '64 nickels were banged out by the mint to bridge the gap between the rapid disappearance of silver coins in circulation and the full introduction of the clad coinage we still have today.

The 64s have more of a defined rim and, therefore, don't have as many contact points as their counterparts from other years during that era. They've actually held up well for coins nearly 50 years old.

While they have strong rims, the die strikes on those are generally pretty squishy and less well detailed. I'm not one who goes wild over circulation-grade Jeff nickels with full steps, but any of those 1964s crossing your path will be treated like the Holy Grail. Never seen one and likely won't. The proof coins don't count. Nice try, though.

I wish i was in the U.S. being in canada i have now after a year of searching put together about 60$ in US nickels.....
You guys have it great with no sorting( unless your looking for pre60). I get so many steelies its not funny.

MetalJunkie wrote:I wish i was in the U.S. being in canada i have now after a year of searching put together about 60$ in US nickels.....
You guys have it great with no sorting( unless your looking for pre60). I get so many steelies its not funny.

Yeah, and the war nickels are really great too I understand you had steel back then instead of silver. But we don't have .999 nickel, unfortunately. I keep all the Canadian nickels I find since I know they're destroying the CuNi ones; maybe they'll be worth something once they no longer appear in circulation.

i save all pre-2014. my percentages are incredible.

and out the the top 40 lowest mintage years only 2 are not in the 38-59 years.. that being 2009. Which is why I collect pre-60's until the change the nickel.

I have a stack of bricks that I keep on hand for a CuNi holding rather than holding surplus FRNs. When I get bored I will sort a brick and replace it on my next bank trip so that my CuNi holdings stay level. After I sort a box, I dump it. Just don't want loose coin around and would rather cycle them and try to find more Buffs & warnix. I do keep all the 1959 and older and I roll them by date & mm. If I see any really nice AU/BU ones from the 60's I will keep them and roll them as well. Went through all my nicest 64's the other day looking for full steps, but no luck of course.

U.S. Nickels with over a billion minted...

1,028,622,762 1964 P
1,066,720,000 1999 D
1,212,000,000 1999 P
1,509,520,000 2000 D
1,787,297,160 1964 D

Not just the 64's!

Klark Cent wrote:i save all pre-2014. my percentages are incredible.

Mine too!

Its amazing how the nickels people keep is so varied. Honestly I keep any with Jefferson on front and Monticello on the back. So a lot of the recent ones are out.

cap wrote:Its amazing how the nickels people keep is so varied. Honestly I keep any with Jefferson on front and Monticello on the back. So a lot of the recent ones are out.

I think this is a joke but I don't get it.