keeping nickels question

[okjdawg]

ive heard a few times to keep all nicks before 64 but lately i have been seeing only to keep before 60s are the 61,62,63, and 64 nicks not worth more than face value if not should i only 1960 and back thanks in advance

[NHsorter]

There is no right or wrong answer, but what I do is I keep all the 1960 or older. If they are in rough shape I don't keep them, even if they are 40's or 50's. If they are 1960's and they look UNC then I will keep them. I roll them and throw them in an ammo can. Once that fills up I may decide to change my process. Or just get another ammo can

[okjdawg]

ok thanks for the help

[plus1hdcp]

It's all up to the individual, no right or wrong answer here. My 5 cents here is to pick an amount you would like to have set aside in nickels and set that aside. After you reach that goal then become a bit more restrictive in what you keep. As for me, I am looking for three coins to finish my folder so I prefer to send more of them back into the wild to increase search capital.

[JadeDragon]

There are a LOT of 1964s - someone posted mintage numbers sorted by least to most recently. The mint must have worked 24/7/365 in 1964!

[mhh]

There are a LOT of 1964s - someone posted mintage numbers sorted by least to most recently. The mint must have worked 24/7/365 in 1964!

The rising price of silver in the mid-1960s caused hoarding of dimes, quarters and half-dollars, all of which were still 90% silver in those days. Because of the resulting silver coin shortage the mint produced lots of nickels, which were not hoarded because they contained no precious metal. Production of 1964-dated nickels continued into 1965 and 1966.

http://www.answers.com/Q/Why_are_there_so_many_1964_nickels

[Z00]

I will re-post this here:

Nickel sorting

Postby Z00 » Mon May 07, 2012 1:38 am
A few of us have been sorting nickels in various ways. The most common seems to be by decade. I was doing this and thought about it and decided that if I am going to the trouble of looking at the date anyway, why not break them completely down. So I bought a couple of boxes of nickel tubes and started breaking them down by date and mint.

Down the road the fact that the composition will likely change, Gresham's law says that many of these will disappear and may command a premium when not easily found in circulation.
Or my grand children will have a good start on the coin business.

I have taken the mintage figures for Jefferson's and loaded them into a database and sorted by mintage. Here is the result:

2,630,030 1950 D
3,514,000 1939 D
4,105,000 1938 S
5,376,000 1938 D
6,630,000 1939 S
7,776,000 1951 S
7,888,000 1955 P
9,716,000 1949 S
9,796,000 1950 P
11,300,000 1948 S
13,560,000 1946 S
13,938,000 1942 D CuNi
15,294,000 1943 D
17,088,000 1958 P
19,210,900 1953 S
19,496,000 1938 P
20,460,000 1951 D
20,572,000 1952 S
21,640,000 1944 S
24,720,000 1947 S
27,248,000 1959 P
28,552,000 1951 P
29,384,000 1954 S
30,638,000 1952 D
32,309,000 1944 D
32,900,000 1942 S
35,216,000 1956 P
36,498,000 1949 D
37,158,000 1945 D
37,822,000 1947 D
38,408,000 1957 P
39,690,000 1940 S
39,840,000 2009 P
43,445,000 1941 S
43,540,000 1940 D
44,734,000 1948 D
45,292,200 1946 D
46,644,000 1953 P
46,800,000 2009 D
47,684,050 1954 P
49,789,000 1942 P CuNi
53,432,000 1941 D
55,416,000 1960 P
57,900,000 1942 P Silver
58,939,000 1945 S
59,878,600 1953 D
60,652,000 1949 P
63,988,000 1952 P
67,222,940 1956 D
73,640,100 1961 P
74,464,100 1955 D
89,348,000 1948 P
91,227,880 1968 D
95,000,000 1947 P
97,384,000 1962 P
100,396,004 1968 S
104,060,000 1943 S
106,884,000 1971 P
107,325,800 1967
117,183,060 1954 D
119,150,000 1944 P
119,408,100 1945 P
120,075,000 1969 S
120,615,000 1939 P
136,131,380 1965
136,828,900 1957 D
156,208,283 1966
160,738,240 1959 D
161,116,000 1946 P
168,249,120 1958 D
176,485,000 1940 P
178,851,645 1963 P
181,772,000 1975 P
192,582,180 1960 D
202,036,000 1972 P
202,807,500 1969 D
203,265,000 1941 P
229,342,760 1961 D
229,920,000 2010 D
238,832,004 1970 S
260,640,000 2010 P
271,165,000 1943 P
276,829,460 1963 D
277,373,000 1974 D
279,840,000 2008 P
280,195,720 1962 D
292,355,000 1982 P
297,313,422 1977 D
313,092,780 1978 D
316,144,800 1971 D
325,867,672 1979 D
344,880,000 2004 D keelboat
345,600,000 2008 D
351,694,600 1972 D
361,405,000 1973 D
361,440,000 2004 P medal
361,819,140 1986 D
364,801,843 1981 D
366,720,000 2004 P keelboat
367,124,000 1976 P
371,499,481 1987 P
372,000,000 2004 D medal
373,726,544 1982 D
383,040,000 2003 D
384,396,000 1973 P
391,308,000 1978 P
394,080,000 2005 P ocean
399,552,000 1992 P
401,875,300 1975 D
406,084,135 1993 D
410,590,604 1987 D
411,120,000 2005 D ocean
412,076,000 1993 P
414,960,000 2011 P (through November)
436,496,678 1991 D
441,840,000 2003 P
448,320,000 2005 P bison
450,565,113 1992 D
459,747,446 1985 D
463,188,000 1979 P
466,640,000 1997 D
470,972,000 1997 P
487,680,000 2005 D bison
502,323,448 1980 D
515,485,380 1970 D
517,675,146 1984 D
523,200,000 2011 D (through November)
536,726,276 1983 D
536,883,483 1986 P
539,280,000 2002 P
561,615,000 1983 P
563,964,147 1976 D
570,842,474 1989 D
571,680,000 2007 P
585,376,000 1977 P
593,004,000 1980 P
601,752,000 1974 P
614,104,000 1991 P
626,160,000 2007 D
627,680,000 2001 D
635,380,000 1998 D
647,114,962 1985 P
657,504,000 1981 P
661,636,000 1990 P
663,771,652 1988 D
663,938,503 1990 D
675,704,000 2001 P
688,292,000 1998 P
691,200,000 2002 D
693,120,000 2006 P
715,762,110 1994 D
722,160,000 1994 P
746,769,000 1984 P
771,360,000 1988 P
774,156,000 1995 P
809,280,000 2006 D
817,736,000 1996 D
829,332,000 1996 P
846,240,000 2000 P
888,112,000 1995 D
898,812,000 1989 P
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

[ZenOps]

I believe all coins were hoarded around the 1965 to 1972 era.

Copper pennies were in very short supply in 1972. Nickel was $8 per pound in 1970, which at the time meant that 20 pounds of pure nickel, would buy 40 barrels of oil. A $100 box of Canadian nickels in 1970 had extreme purchasing power. Nowadays, it much more like 20 pounds of nickel buying 1 and 1/2 barrels of oil.

And then Nixon changed the rules in 1971 for all metals. In many ways, I believe Nixon changed the rules - because he saw that he (and the US) was on the losing path, so Nixon forced the world off metals as money literally - at gunpoint.

Coinage is usually produced to demand, just like Silver Eagles and Maples are today. The higher the demand, the higher the price, but also the much higher the mintage. Was the demand for overall coinage so high in 1964? According to my Grandfather, yes - it was. And according to him, during WWII - noone hoarded silver war nickels - they hoarded the nickel five cent pieces. It ended up being folly for anyone who hoarded silver or nickel five cent pieces, because you would have gone twenty years before its value would surpass face (1944 to 1964 for either silver or nickel, where you could have invested the money in *anything* else, you probably would gained so much more)

Circumstance and perception of value is totally based on the time and conditions you are living under.

[Recyclersteve]

I believe all coins were hoarded around the 1965 to 1972 era.

Copper pennies were in very short supply in 1972. Nickel was $8 per pound in 1970, which at the time meant that 20 pounds of pure nickel, would buy 40 barrels of oil. A $100 box of Canadian nickels in 1970 had extreme purchasing power. Nowadays, it much more like 20 pounds of nickel buying 1 and 1/2 barrels of oil.

And then Nixon changed the rules in 1971 for all metals. In many ways, I believe Nixon changed the rules - because he saw that he (and the US) was on the losing path, so Nixon forced the world off metals as money literally - at gunpoint.

Coinage is usually produced to demand, just like Silver Eagles and Maples are today. The higher the demand, the higher the price, but also the much higher the mintage. Was the demand for overall coinage so high in 1964? According to my Grandfather, yes - it was. And according to him, during WWII - noone hoarded silver war nickels - they hoarded the nickel five cent pieces. It ended up being folly for anyone who hoarded silver or nickel five cent pieces, because you would have gone twenty years before its value would surpass face (1944 to 1964 for either silver or nickel, where you could have invested the money in *anything* else, you probably would gained so much more)

Circumstance and perception of value is totally based on the time and conditions you are living under.

Very well put!

[okjdawg]

thank you all for your input i really appreciate it

[plus1hdcp]

This turned into a nice discussion. Well stated Steve

[ZenOps]

If you want even weirder US statistics: Assume that in the last few years, the US has minted about one billion nickels per year:

Thats 1.25 grams of actual nickel per 25% purity five cent, which works out to be 40,193,000 ounces of nickel metal put into "nickels" each year.

Number of ounces made into Silver Eagles each year for the last five years or so: You guessed it, not quite 40,000,000 ounces per year.

Amount of nickel put into coinage in Canada statistics: Almost nothing (2% plating on the last remaning coins is probably not worth calcuating) in the last year.

Number of ounces put into Silver Maples for the last five years or so: around 20,000,000 ounces per year.


So, even now - you could technically say that in actual produced coinage nickel is rarer than silver, if you measure by weight

[Recyclersteve]

ZenOps: Does that mean I should go long nickel and short silver... Just kidding- interesting thought though.

[Recyclersteve]

Let me rephrase what I just said- I didn't mean going long nickel and shorting silver was the interesting item. I meant that the comment from ZenOps was the interesting item. Ok- nuff said.

[ZenOps]

Heeh. When you do historically look at the actual mintage of nickel to silver since 1885, the story gets even weirder.

Silver circulation coinage before 1964 greatly outnumbered nickel circulation coinage by weight, but its since settled to a closer to 1:1 weight ratio in the US. People still think there is some outrageous ratio of nickel to silver, but its really pretty much 1:1 everywhere except maybe Britain (switched to cupronickel earlier than everyone else, and has extra because of decimalization)

I just look at what the rich people are doing... And by rich I mean Monarchy rich. The crown has been removing nickel and copper from circulation in Canada for ten years now, and yet has never minted and sold more silver bullion coinage to the general population than in the last ten years.

Personally, I just follow the ultrarich people - It does tend to workout in the end.

[ZenOps]

Other nickel coin facts needing verification:

France had about a 4:1 ratio of nickel to silver coinage before joining the euro. Germany and Japan were not allowed to create nickel coinage after WWII in the treaty of Versaille, because of its value as a strategic war metal (along with restrictions on Uranium)

[ZenOps]

A keeper for Canadians is the 1991 with 10,931,000 mintage.

An UNC roll easily goes for $20, and you can still find quite a few in circulation. I can imagine in about a decade they will be worth something extra.

[Rastatodd]

I have a question. I have a roll of 1967 "Rabbit" nickels uncirculated, do these sell at premuim or is their value just a base metal. Was wondering.

[mtalbot_ca]

If it is an original bank roll, I believe you could sell the roll for 10$-15$. If it is not, then 4$.