Pre 1959 Nickles, Why Save?

ianmprice- why keep 69 and earlier

I was keeping all the pre 60 nickels too. I decided to put 2 rolls of mixed 50s in my coin club auction. I started them at face $4 and that's all they brought. After this happened a second time I cashed out my remaining 10 rolls at the bank. Even with assorted values in the guides, they are too common in bank rolls to ever be worth much more than face. Of course there are a few good dates & mms I keep. I still save all the pre 50s.

IMO, I think they are just like the wheat pennies. I remember just 10 years ago people were saying that wheat pennies would't be worth anything because there were so many. Now, they bring more of a premium than they did then. Same with the nickels. In time, they will be worth more of a premium than they are today.

I am with the prince on this one. I keep the 69's and older also. I just can not figure why I find so many 64's.

I never consider not keeping certain dates of any coins. I try to fill Albums so if those Nickels have a slot in an Album, I save them. I know there are people that hoard certain Nickels or Dimes or something, but I just collect coins for sets. A few exceptions like the 1943 Lincoln Cent but those are weird.

Of coures there is one really important thing to consider. With the prices and availability of Copper to make Brass for ammunition, Nickel is more and more being used for those cassings. Therefore saving Nickels now will insure that if the quantity of gun owners continues to increase, the amount of ammo too will have to increase making the necessity for Nickel casings more in demand.

I only keep 1955 and earlier. The 55 to 59 are to common in my opinion. That being said, some of the pre-55 are also common, but I think 1941 nickels are still pretty cool even if they are common.

I started out just saving pre 1964 nickels. I drew the line there on account of the billions of 1964 nickels that were minted. I collected them because they were only setting me back 5 cents a pc. that I did not spend. Then I decided, I should try to make a set, once I had most of the dates and mint marks.
I started to realize just how often certain dates popped up and just how difficult it was to find some of the others.
You can get good enough looking at the reverse of these things to almost pin the date on it without looking after awhile. I used to be pretty good at that.
Now I started to look at all the nickels for the best example I could find for each date ever minted. I remember just how hard it was to find a clean nick free 1971 Jefferson.
I started to realize that some dates rarely had any steps on the reverse too.
I find the series a real study in coin collecting, I learned all the basics from looking at them, then I learned what makes one coin better than the next.
I collect all the dates now if they are exceptional examples. Just try to find a pretty full step well struck nickel from 1980 to 1985 in the rolls you search. They are far more valuable than a circulated XF 1941 1946 or 1947 nickel.
I have to wonder, you guys doing the box searches, just how many great nickels you are throwing back.
I get really excited when an AU 1960's anything comes to me making change. I just have to save it.