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I remember hearing that part of the reason 2009 nickels are so hard to come by is because many of them were sent to Puerto Rico. Also, you may remember that the island of P.R. was ravaged by two deadly hurricanes (Irma and Maria), both in September, 2017.

I'm fairly certain this would have caused more than a few 2009 nickels to be lost in the ocean or buried in mud and possibly gone forever.

What does anyone know about the quantity of 2009's (P and/or D mints) that initially went to PR? Also, has anyone found anything about the number of 2009's lost to the two hurricanes? Has anyone traveled to PR since 2009 that can comment on those coins?

I've heard nobody talk about this. If someone could come up with something, that would be very interesting to find. Thanks in advance.

A little bit of trivia about the 2009's- if you dig out an old Redbook you will see that initially the folks at Whitman got one of the mintages wrong. Initially one was something like 400+ million instead of the 40+ million it should have been. I wrote to Whitman about this and noticed that it was corrected by the time the next edition was published. Not sure if it was because of my correspondence or if they got requests from many others too.

I thought it might be good to provide an update on the 2009 nickels, especially since I see a lot of roll searchers who mention them when roll hunting. I'm going to expand my original post and change the title to include the low mintage dimes as well. First, here are the mintages as per the Redbook:

2009-P nickel: 39,840,000
2009-D nickel: 46,800,000

2009-P dime: 96,500,000
2009-D dime: 49,500,000

Since these coins first came out 10 years ago, I thought it would be interesting to look back and share with each other how many of each we have found. Without getting too specific about where I live (for privacy reasons), let's just say that I live west of the Mississippi River (which is true). That said, here are my findings so far after close to 10 years of looking...

2009-P nickel: 0 (a total goose egg so far)
2009-D nickel: 24

2009-P dime: 3
2009-D dime: 6

If you read my original post, you will see information about Puerto Rico being the potential home for lots of these 2009's. I know of someone who is selling rolls of BU 2009-P nickels for $65 a roll. At first I thought that was a sky high price, but now that I realize I have found ZERO in the past 10 years, maybe that isn't as high as I first thought.

What has everyone else been able to find of these 4 coins?

Haven't thought about these dates in awhile. Let's see what my stats reveal -

2009 Nickel

P - First found on 8/18/11, though it's typical to find the first P mint very late in the year here in NV, sometimes even into the following year. August, two years later? Unusual.

D - First found on 5/23/10, again, not normal. My first finds are almost always D mints, and easily within the first five months.

I have an example of each in my nickel Whitman folder and I was able to accumulate an entire roll of D mint since I was still actively nickel searching at the time. Not sure the date of completion but I know it took a few years. P mints were scarce enough that I never took the task of starting a roll.

2009 Dime

P - First found on 6/28/09, now THAT was a surprise. P mints are rarely the first discovery for me, especially this specific year. Guess I lucked out.

D - First found on 11/1/10. Hoarding must have started early on the west coast for me to get the first one this late.

Just have one of each in my dime Whitman folder. Still see them now and then in spare change but don't make an effort to save them.

Thanks coindood. Anyone else?

I have saved every one that I have found, and I have not found many.

2009-P nickel: 1
2009-D nickel: 3

2009-P dime: 6
2009-D dime: 3

This is just from change received and several dime and nickel bags from the bank. Several being less than 5 each as I ususally just search half dollars.
FYI: I am located in Minnesota Twin Cities area.

So - here in FL - my luck has been greater than anyone else who has shared. Current status:

2009-P Nickels: 58
2009-D Nickels: 11

2009-P Dimes: 23
2009-D Dimes: 9

I haven't searched nickels or dimes in a few years either.

agmoose wrote:So - here in FL - my luck has been greater than anyone else who has shared. Current status:

2009-P Nickels: 58
2009-D Nickels: 11

2009-P Dimes: 23
2009-D Dimes: 9

I haven't searched nickels or dimes in a few years either.

Your high numbers could be because your are closer to Puerto Rico than most anyone else (see my original posting in case you wonder what I meant about Puerto Rico). Also, when people from Puerto Rico go on vacation, chances are that they are far more likely to go to Florida, than, say, Texas or Arizona.

I find this whole topic simply amazing and interesting.

I was working in Baltimore in 2009, and remember wondering why I wasn't seeing these new coins in Feb/March.

I went back and looked through all of the extra nickels I had in a bag, and did not have a single 2009 in there. Crazy!!

Also just saw this interesting article:

https://www.coinnews.net/2009/04/29/us- ... roduction/

Interesting article! I dont remember ever reading that before.

TXSTARFIRE wrote:Interesting article! I dont remember ever reading that before.

Ditto.

Remember this thread? viewtopic.php?f=10&t=44253

It's the one where I opened and sorted 29+ boxes of nicks and shared the gory details box by box. Found several hundred 2009 Ds. Still have most of them. PM me if interested. I'd be happy to wholesale them at bulk prices for those of you who profitably sell on ebay, etc.

thecrazyone wrote:Also just saw this interesting article:

https://www.coinnews.net/2009/04/29/us- ... roduction/

Sorry I'm late... I just started reading this thread.

So they're basically blaming the recession from that year for the low mintage amounts. Just what I thought.

This was one of the very few times in history where housing prices actually went DOWN substantially.