The Goal: 25,000 Rolls Of Nickels (All Searchers Welcome!)

I've been through like $3000 worth of nickels and I haven't found one yet, so good job cutepenny!

I embarked on my own "complete pre-1960 Jefferson nickel" quest in January this year. So far:
30 boxes + 20 extra rolls (= 60,800 nickels; = $3040)
6 Buffalos (but none since April)
1 "V" nickel (a F-12 1907)
22 silver

Still lacking: 1938-D, 1938-S, 1939-D, 1943-S, 1945-D, 1945-S, 1950-D, 1951-S

Have found one each of: 1939-S, 1942-S, 1943-D, 1948-S, 1952-S, 1954-S
Have found two each of: 1938, 1942-D, 1944-D, 1944-S, 1946-S, 1947-D, 1955

Most common: 1940 (67 of them!)
Second-most common: 1959-D (57 of them)
Third-most common: 1946 (54 of them)

A few notes:
* a hand-wrapped roll from my credit union this week consisted of 40 pre-1960 Jeffersons!
* no buffalos since April--where have they gone? Are other people seeing this fall-off also?
* I've found two 1955--I know that this issue eludes some people until the end, while others find many!

I've compared my detailed counts with mintage percentages for all pre-1960 Jefferson issues. My finds roughly match the relative occurrence of the commoner issues (I just don't have enough data to analyze the scarcer dates). In other words, the 1939 nickel accounts for 4.6% of all of the pre-1960 issues. In my pre-1960 pile, 1939 makes up 3.7%. Or 1948: 3.4% of total pre-1960 mintage; in my pile, 3.2% of the nickels are 1948. (I haven't done this yet with the silver issues.)

This suggests to me that older common-date Jefferson nickels are not disappearing from circulation faster than newer (but still before 1960) Jefferson nickels. I've often wondered whether there might be some kind of "exponential decay" for common circulating coins. But I don't think there is.

One analysis I haven't done is to see the fraction of my pre-1960 Jefferson nickels that make up the total group of circulating nickels I've looked through (from 1938 to the present) to see whether the pre-1960 Jeffersons are perhaps rarer than the post-1960 nickels relatively speaking.

Final thought: the total mintage of all pre-1960 Jeffersons is 3.5 billion. The combined mintage of just 1964 and 1964-D is 2.8 billion! There were more than a thousand times as many 1964, 1964-D nickels minted as there were 1950-D minted!

I started my search in November of last year. So far I'm 1556 rolls in (just over 31 boxes). I hope to complete the set by the end of the year, but that's up to the nickel gods.

My goals:

1) Complete the set from circulation (all dates and mint marks from 1938 to present)
2) Find a buffalo
3) Find a V nickel
4) Have fun

So far #2 is complete and the others are on going.

I have 7 holes left to fill: 38D, 39D, 42D, 43S, 44D, 44S and 50D

To date I have found 9 buffalos, 32 War Nickels, 2 proofs and 3 dimes

For foreigns I've found 44 canadian, 1 Euro, 1 Cayman 5c, 1 Russian Ruble, 1 Greek Drachma, 2 Mexican 50 centavo, 1 Mexican peso, 1 British 20 pence and 1 Dutch 5 cent. I've found about 10 times as many foreigns in the coin counters when dumping, but those don't count.

Find rates in rolls (e.g. I've found a War Nickel every 48.63 rolls):

         Total   Rate
----------------------
30s        34    45.76 (almost all 1939)
40s       381     4.08
War        32    48.63
50s       521     2.99
Pre 60s   968     1.61
Proofs      2   778.00
Buffaloes   9   172.89 (none for awhile like jdh)
V           0     0.00 (boo)
Canadian   44    35.36
Other       9   172.89

My top 3:

1958D:  91
1940:   80
1959D:  70

May start releasing some of the high mintage pre-60s back to circulation since I'm currently holding around half a box of them.

Top Wars are 43P with 9 followed closely by 45P with 8 found. I also have 3 42S.


Interesting Errors:

Cud: https://goccf.com/t/68223
curved clip: https://goccf.com/t/69738
lamination: https://goccf.com/t/64020

I've also made a few hundred bucks selling 2010D's on ebay which has helped fund upgrades to my 20th century type set. Definately helps my goal of having fun!

I've been searching nickel boxes actively for 3 years.
In that time I've found all the circulation strike jeffs except for

38d, 39d, 43d, 44d, 09d, 10d and 50d

Ive also found 4 proofs 50, 71s, 87s, and 2001s

As for buffalos I've found the 13, 14, 18, 19 , 19d, 23, 26, 27, 28, 28d, 29, 35, 36, 37, and 37d plus a few I havent nicadated yet and a dozen or so extra 35 and 36's

In terms of V nickels I've found only 3 a 1883 with cents in xf, a 1906 in ag, and a 1907 in g

Ive also found several errors including 3 major die breaks (1970d, 1983, and 1996), 4 or 5 partial collars, several large misaligned dies, and also a 1999 broadstrike I found in the rejects while dumping.

Ive also found from a mix of rolls and machine rejects more than half of the canadian nickel issues and over a third of the bermuda fish nickel business strikes

I started nickel searching in Jan 2010 and have done 24 boxes.

I'm missing: 38S, 39D, 41D, 42S, 43D, 44S, 49S and 50D.

I've found 18 buffs - (3 boxes with 4), 24 wars, (2 boxes with 4).

I've found 81 Canadians, 38 Bermudas and 11 other countries so far.

Only 1 proof, no V's.

I'll be picking up a box in the morning.............yay!

The nickel searching gods must not be smiling on me. Finished a box yesterday and came across five 1955's face up...all with that D on the reverse. Every one I flipped thinking this is gonna be it...except for one that was trashed on the front and I was only thinking this better NOT be it. It will come.

A few finds from my last few boxes.

A 1930-S Buffalo with a clash of E Pluribus Unum under his chin, nothing spectacular, but interesting none-the-less.


A 1959 Black Beauty (Improperly Annealed Planchet) along with a 1966 SMS Jefferson:

See this thread for more on the Black Beauty Nickels: https://goccf.com/t/70951

Here are a few more shots of my 1966 SMS, knew it was something special right when I came upon it:








Enjoy our humble nickel.