How Excited Are You To Find A 60 Year Old Coin In Circulation?

It totally depends on what denomination it is - the rare silver find is obviously cool, and last November I got lucky with a 1954 Quarter in self-checkout supermarket change. And, since Wheat Cents are what got me started all of those years ago, I still enjoy getting them back, even if they're common date.

That said, now that I've received a 155 year-old coin in self-checkout supermarket change (an 1867 Indian cent last October), everything else is kind of muted a little.

Fantastic!

It's funny, when I started collecting as a kid around 40 years ago, my cutoff for year was 1959, anything 1960 or newer was just change. And it still is. Other than silver value, it still needs to be 50s or older to be of any interest.

It's also funny to contemplate that the music from back then (Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna) is as old now as Sinatra and Bing Crosby were back then And yet my cutoff for "old coin" hasn't changed at all

Outstanding!

Now that dealer would either be lying or just not very knowledgeable about the market for Jefferson nickels. Yeah, your 1940 coin is likely a throwaway unless it's high grade (VF or better) or mintmarked, but there is a premium for all but the most common-date pre-60s.

The 1939-D, of course, is worth a good amount over face, as are the other key dates: 1938-D, 1938-S, and 1939-S... The 1942-D, 1949-S, 1950, 1951-S, and 1955 are worth, at a minimum, three times face even in very low grades, much more in higher grades, obviously, especially the '42-D.

Not to mention all BU 1982 and 1983 nickels are worth a substantial premium, as are all 2009-dated nickels, regardless of condition.

A month ago, I sold a circulated (VF/XF/AU) roll of 2009-Ds for $32.50 on ebay - more than 81 cents a coin. The 2009-Ps go for much more than that, usually.

Yes, you likely did well with those pre-1940 mintmarked Jeffersons but I would need to see the dates and grades to be sure. I rarely buy coins on ebay, but a little over a year ago, I made quite a nice purchase, grabbing 54 such coins (including 24 1939-Ds, half of which are XF or better), along with 20 1938Ps, for less than $100. I kept waiting for someone to outbid me as I was thinking, at minimum, that group of coins was worth $250 or so... but it never happened!

The Red Book and other price guides are often off in their prices, particularly for modern coins. Until the 2022 edition, the Red Book prices for the 2009-P and 2009-D Jefferson nickels were 30 cents in MS-63 and 70 cents in MS65. In the 2022 edition, those prices were FINALLY adjusted to $3 and $5 respectively for the two grades. But even these more reflective prices are off as the P is considerably harder to find and thus typically sells for considerably more than its Denver counterpart.

My LCS pays 6 cents for all "common date" pre-1960 nickels- even the ubiquitous 1940, 1941, 1946, 1947, 1952, and 1953-D through 1959-D coins.

The 1990-D NO FS Jefferson has always been a fascinating coin to me - it got a lot of press early on, but, for still unknown reasons, has pretty much faded into obscurity. Which is a shame because it is actually a great example of a modern rarity. It's extremely difficult to find in circulation today - only the five key date Jeffersons and the 1943-D have been harder for me to find in my years of searching. If I were to guess, I'd say they likely minted fewer than 3,000,000 of these coins. I own 30 of them, 10 of which I found back when they first came out, the other 20 I've found these past several years of CRH - I've gone through close to 2 MILLION nickels now.

What's also happened a lot in recent years is people selling sets of modern coins on sites such as ebay. For example, 1962-1995 (or 1996) Jefferson nickels. While most of the coins are fairly easy to find, coins such as the 1968-D and 1971 Philly can be hard to locate in quantity - as a result, I can sell circulated, problem-free rolls of these two dates on ebay for 3.5-4.5x face with little trouble.