Why Are 1992-P Nickels Valuable?

If 10% of the '92-P 5c's on the market are gemmy or better and there are only several hundred currently available for sale this leaves the number of nice coins in the dozens.

I can hardly imagine what would happen if hundreds of people suddenly started collecting modern nickels. They simply are not available and there is no where at all to turn for the coins except for a rapidly dwindling supply of mint sets.

Old coins are available in old collections and attrition on them is exceedingly low. Dealers have supplies of old coins. It's easy to find rolls of '49-S dimes or '50-D nickels. Where do you get a roll of '92-P?

Modern coins have staggering high attrition and there is no market and no old collections.

If you want a nice gemmy coin the PCGS price guide lists it for $10 meaning it's value is negative ten dollars because it costs twenty to grade. You can just buy 10 1992 mint sets for $30 and take all the rest of the coins to the bank and your net cost is about $11.20

These are crazy markets but the fact remains the coins are very scarce relative their cost. A '50-D nickel costs about $11 but these are hundreds of times more common than what I personally consider the lowest grade to collect moderns. Most '50-D nickels look fairly good. Most moderns do not look so good.

To each his own. A set of circulated modern nickels would look really nice if each specimen were carefully selected. It would be exceedingly difficult to assemble even in F condition.

Very interesting.

I wasn't aware there were many dealers handling such coins. I agree that these coins are very baggy but I had believed that buyers were not so picky. Some of the 1984 to 1999 mint set coins are extremely scratched. I saved a few nice rolls but most of these have poorly made coins.

It is extremely interesting that buyers are so picky because there are so many moderns that are so hard to find nice. Most dates are poorly made, scratched up, or both.

It must be extremely difficult to keep some of these chBU coins in stock. Is there much demand for the lower quality coins?

I guess I shouldda checked that last post.

It's Village Coin Shop selling a roll of '92-P nickels for $200. Mebbe they saw this thread.


I'm really curious what someone gets for their money here. Is this a roll of really nice coins that was recognized as being better or maybe put together from many mint sets? Is it possible that the roll is just so unusual that it was recognized as such. This seems unlikely since so many rolls are unusual.

It might be pointed out that this coin shop (or one by the same name) used to sell a lot of BU clad, nickel, and cent rolls back in the day.