Quote:Wow, so I came out ahead when I bought the '38s and '39s with mintmarks for 50c-$1.50 each!
I'd been thinking prior to that conversation that anything pre-1960/65 was worth 6-7c each even in low grades purely on account of its age. I always saw coin roll hunters talk about saving the pre-1960 nickels, the first Whitman folder is 1938-1961, and the
Red Book lists higher values for 1938-1965 nickels than 1966-present, so I'd always taken for granted that there was something to it. (1964 is also the last year with mintmarks on the reverse instead of the obverse. That seems like as significant of a dividing line if anything for me - or else 1965 and before, the ones without the "FS" initials. Plus, wheat cents are considered collectible, as are silver dimes and quarters, the latter for obvious reasons.) I still can't feel good about putting a coin from 1940 back in circulation because, come on, the fact it's older than my grandparents (who are in their early 80s!) ought to count for something.
After that conversation with the coin dealer, I just dumped my 60s nickels which I felt I could in good conscience part with, and sold my $2.15 face value in pre-1960 nickels to my mom and she gave me face value for them. I'd have to look at my sheet again to see if there were any of the ones you listed in there. I'm a younger collector (early 20s) so I'm still not sure yet as to what's fact and what's fiction.
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.
CRH Nickeloholic. 1,600,000 nickels searched in eight years! Have found FOUR complete Jefferson sets!
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Posted 03/26/2023 10:12 am
