The Hype Behind Pre-1960's Nickels

There is no hype IMHO ... 1960 just seemed to me to be a logical cut-off date for what to track and save ... no true reason behind it because many (most) of the pre 1960 coins have zero numismatic premium above face value.

So far after 247,200 nickels searched I have amassed 3,253 nickels older than 1960 ... some have value above 5 cents ... most do not ... but I enjoy saving them and they can always be spent if needed.

David

Well I save them so I can give them to my children so they can put a collection from scratch. Will mix them with others and have my kids eventually search them.

I forgot to add that we each have four of the Whitman 1938-1961 nickel holders which we also save.

I actually started to go through rolled nickels a few months ago since I was going to keep a few hundred dollars worth as an 'investment' since the intrinsic value is more than face. Well, I received a group of handrolled nickels in that first batch. In proving for correctness, I found a silver War Nickel in the first roll. In the second roll an Buffalo. In counting these I found many older nickels and decided to not only save nickels for their intrinic value but to go through them and fill up collection books! I found MANY older nickels and have pulled out all pre 1980 actually. Just put them in cups as going through and kept the best for the books and just rerolled them and marked the date. I think nickels are really the only coin that have not been searched out! Dimes, quarters and halves have been basically cleaned out pre 1965 due to silver content and pennies searched for wheats and pre 1982! Nickels not at all! If you want to start a colleciton of coins, nickels are the way to go first. Although the pre 1982 pennies are still out there as well as stray silver, nickels are abundant at least now plus, keeping the common dates are an investment waiting to happen, but if not they are always a nickels. So, you can have a maybe future investment in metal if our currency collapses or a sure thing with no loss potential!

A bump four years and almost three months in the making.

It's only a matter of time until they either change the composition or discontinue the nickel all together. As many others have mentioned, pre-1960 just seems like a good cutoff for what's considered "old." Jefferson nickels are some of the most fun coins to search. Since the design hasn't drastically changed since inception.. there are a ton of cool coins to find out there.

The curious thing is all the old nickels will be common in all grades right up through Gem because people saved them when they were new and as they wore out. The more modern nickels will, in some cases, be far scarcer and will be almost non-existent in grades all the way down to F condition.

I can't remember the last time I saw a nice looking 1971 in better than F but it must be going on fifteen years anyway. In the last several years the attrition on nickels has been soaring because they are big heavy coins with very little value. They are getting tossed in the trash and hoarded for their metal.

If the government ever reacquires sanity they'll melt all the existing coins nd issue something cheaper. Finding something like a '69-D that is pristine and above VG will become quite problematical.

Of course, now nobody cares bout these later dates anyway they are not missed.