Nickel sorting

[Z00]

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

[rsk1963]

Awesome

2009 P truly sticks out, looking through the stats...


as well as 1964 (hate that friggen heart breaker)

[ZenOps]

Nice.

Its amazing how the US made more nickels in 1964, than every single Canadian made pure nickel from 1922 to 1981.

[SilverDragon72]

+1 for your list!

[Bigsarge]

+1 for your list!

I'll +1 that

Thanks for putting this together

I've gone through 2- $200 bags of nickels and have found lots of 40s+50's, quite a few buffalos, war nicks and even a 1901, but have yet to find a 2009. I have actually stopped searching for one.

[Z00]

I have a grand total of 2 2009-D no P's.

Perhaps we should get everyone to start to corner the market on 2009 nickels. Make realcent members the go-to place for them.

[sparechange]

The list is great!! I got 8 2009D in $100 box last week. I think might be something with location of searches. I still find several in most of my $100 boxes. I do keep them--hope to corner the market.

[NHsorter]

Speaking of 2009's, I could use some for my kids' bingo books. Anyone want to let go of 2 of the D's and 2 of the P's for a reasonable rate?
EDIT: I found what I needed thanks to many helpful realcenters

[SilverDragon72]

Take a trip to Puerto Rico! I hear that is where they shipped the 2009 nickels....Finding them here hasn't been easy to say the least so far!

[Coppergot]

Hey I was hoping someone could explain the ins and outs of nickel sorting to me? according to coin flation.com all u.s. Nickels are only 25 percent nickel? I understand the wartime nickels, but what else should I be looking for???

[Numis Pam]

This is a very helpful list! Thanks so much~

[hobo finds]

Numbers for 2011 & 2012 to add to the list.

450,000,000 2011 P
540,240,000 2011 D
464,640,000 2012 P
558,960,000 2012 D

[SilverDragon72]

Take a trip to Puerto Rico! I hear that is where they shipped the 2009 nickels....Finding them here hasn't been easy to say the least so far!

I have a new box of nickels to sort. I hope to find some 2009 nickels in it....

[wrshpr]

What I do is I save anything 1982 or older other than 64s. This represents only 15 trillion of the 55 trillion Jefferson nickles ever made. I am basically just saving nicks for rolls, and this is a way for it to be an arguably higher quality roll than otherwise, while making it so I find more and thereby make the process more interesting than if I only did pre-60s.

[scyther]

What I do is I save anything 1982 or older other than 64s. This represents only 15 trillion of the 55 trillion Jefferson nickles ever made. I am basically just saving nicks for rolls, and this is a way for it to be an arguably higher quality roll than otherwise, while making it so I find more and thereby make the process more interesting than if I only did pre-60s.

Well, they could arguably be seen as lower quality due to higher wear, if the purpose is for metal content.

And I think you mean billion... they're not quite that common.

[Silver Runner]

Great resource, thanks.

HH,
Silver Runner

[OtusLotus]

BTW.. that is a total of 54,870,087,017 nickels worth a whopping $2,743,504,350.85

Weird that it is .85 and not a whole number!

[SilverDragon72]

I have a grand total of 2 2009-D no P's.

Perhaps we should get everyone to start to corner the market on 2009 nickels. Make realcent members the go-to place for them.

Good idea! I know that the 6 I've got is a HUGE start!

[Morsecode]

Informative post. I missed it the first time around

Good job!

[68Camaro]

Stupid question that has probably been addressed a zillion times, but what's the market for pre-60 Jeffersons?

I'm currently culling the low-hanging fruit of these while looking for war nicks, but if the market isn't good I'll just let them go by. If they aren't able to return an average of at least 10%+ premium over face they aren't worth my time.

Comments?

[Engineer]

Stupid question that has probably been addressed a zillion times, but what's the market for pre-60 Jeffersons?

I'm currently culling the low-hanging fruit of these while looking for war nicks, but if the market isn't good I'll just let them go by. If they aren't able to return an average of at least 10%+ premium over face they aren't worth my time.

Comments?

I'll buy all you have at face plus 15%...provided there's enough to make shipping worthwhile.

In all seriousness, I believe nobody knows the market because we haven't tested the waters via auctions. If you've collected enough of them to fill a SFRB, it could make a great KSA or rolling auction item.

[68Camaro]

Good to know, thanks. I've sorted 18 boxes so far resulting in $20+ face of 39-60, close to 5 pounds. Probably not enough to justify shipping yet but if I fo continue this I'll accumulate more. I find I can hand-search these fairly fast - maybe too fast and I'm missing some - but I can do a box in 20 minutes and I'd rather be fast and miss some than spend twice the time and get a small yield improvement. I'm starting to order nickels like I once did cents, so if I can work these into what might otherwise be downtime I may continue this.

[ZenOps]

BTW.. that is a total of 54,870,087,017 nickels worth a whopping $2,743,504,350.85

Weird that it is .85 and not a whole number!

Yup somewhere between $8 and $9 worth of nickels, or 7 ounces of nickel in five cent form for each of 314 million US citizens in 2013.

Dare to calculate how much silver in face value and ounces there were per capita in coinage in the US in 1964?

There is this silly quote going around that if everyone in the US just bought one or two ounces of silver, all the available unallocated silver would be gone... Well its kind of true. But its also true that if everyone in the US bought 7 to 14 ounces of nickel, all of the unallocated nickel would be gone too, lol.

[scyther]

BTW.. that is a total of 54,870,087,017 nickels worth a whopping $2,743,504,350.85

Weird that it is .85 and not a whole number!

Yup somewhere between $8 and $9 worth of nickels, or 7 ounces of nickel in five cent form for each of 314 million US citizens in 2013.

Dare to calculate how much silver in face value and ounces there were per capita in coinage in the US in 1964?

There is this silly quote going around that if everyone in the US just bought one or two ounces of silver, all the available unallocated silver would be gone... Well its kind of true. But its also true that if everyone in the US bought 7 to 14 ounces of nickel, all of the unallocated nickel would be gone too, lol.

Yeah, thats really not a fair comparison, considering the vast majority of all nickel is not in 5 cent coin form.

[ZenOps]

The vast majority of silver is not in coin form (Constitutional or bullion)

While you can get copper in wiring, plumbing, etc.. Nickel is not available to your average consumer in anything other than coin. Silver is available in jewellry like gold, and other uses.

If someone did the math, there was more silver in 90% coinage in 1964 per capita than there ever was nickel in coinage.

In the 1940's the market deciced that silver was worth approximately 35 cents per ounce (the absolute low was 32 cents). What happened to all that silver? Did some alien transport it off the earth?

Nickel... Is available in coins, WWII personal armor and diluted very lightly in some armored vehicles, occasionally doorknobs and kitchen sinks. There was a very short period of time where electric car batteries were made of 150 pounds of nickel, but as it hit $23/pound - it quickly killed off that idea, relegating it to lead acid or lithium. Even though there was a 90% chance that a nickel battery would be recycled, it was still to expensive.