Nickel Collecting Questions

A lot of us, myself included keep anything 1959 and below. Its a good way to find stuff. As for key dates: 1950d, 1938 s & d, 1955p. I know those seem to be hard to find. I'm having trouble with 1949s and 39 s & d. Its really what you want to keep. I personally save every foreign coin I find because I think they are neat. Your call though.

Count me in on the pre-1960 nickels. Though they are getting harder and harder to find in my local. Seems like everyone (tellers included) are saving.

There are many post 1959 nickels that can be valuable too.
My advice is to try making a set from roll searching and checking your pocket change. As you continue your quest, some things will start to "click" for you as to which are typically common and the conditions you find them in.
Eventually you will be able to determine what makes a particular nickel in hand special amidst all the others.
This forum is packed with posts about Jefferson nickels, use the search box with keywords and browse the modern coins section.
Get a RedBook and check out the online price guides ... Here's one for ya.
http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/price...icesgd.shtml
This series is my favorite and there is a lot you can learn while studying them that will help you gain tools and knowledge that is useful understanding coin collecting in general at a minimal cost.

keep Canadian nickels before 1982. They are 99.9% nickel (although some of the ones in the 50's are steel).

I don't buy into the pre 1959 thing. For example, They make 203 MILLION nickels in Philli in 1941. It sounds like they are old, but any 1941 in less than XF pretty much won't be worth more than 5 cents in my lifetime (or my kid's lifetime, and he is only 3 months along). I only save nickels before '59 with an 'S' mintmark or ones where they make less than 15 Million, or the silver ones of course.

Great advice about pre-59. Perhaps you could do this: Triage.
Get some coin tubes, and some rolls of nickels and just pick out all the ones pre-59, then turn in the others and buy more rolls until you have run out of nickels.

I am developing a system here base on what I have read so far...here it is...
First, I found a Credit Union with a coin counter cheaper than Coinstar (which chargeds around 10%)...the Cornerston FCU in Lockport, NY charges only 3% for the coint counting (which is for customers only)...when I get the receipt I can directly deposit into a checking or savings account (no fee, its a credit union! Credit unions are a beautiful thing, banks are trying to shut them down because the Credit Unions are non-profit and keep your money local!) So, why not have my coin habit feed antother great habit...saving money!

Anyway, that't a great dumping ground...so other fellas like me are probably doing something similar....now, where to BUY the rolls...how about someplace that is hostile to coin dumping? How about a big multi-national bank? Buy rolls at your HSBC's , your BOA's or what have you...anyplace that will not accept coins unless they are rolled! (which is a PITA and time consuming [I am sure somebody on this board has a machine that automatically rolls coins for you or some such thing...]

Regarding nickels, if I see a really nice strike, or all the steps I am keeping it...also, I look out for unusual toning brought about by tempering oven mistakes [possibly the wrong process name here, but search Black Beauties on this board, they are nickels that have a very rich , dark finish that came from the mint!)

Add me to the list of pre-1959 hoarders.

I use the triage method.I pick up rolls of nickels at my local BOA. I also pick up wraps for free while I am there. I then go through each roll and take out any pre-1959 as well as any nickel from the 60's or 70's with full steps as well as any proof or well struck coin that catches my eye. I then rewrap them in the new rolls and bring them back to my dump bank. Every once and awhile I sit down with all the coins I've pulled out and go through them in more detail. I separate them by year and mint mark and put all they others in groups. I have been able to put together a complete set (except for the 50D, that one I had to buy). I also have 2 more sets that only need a couple of coins for that I have given to each of my sons.

As for the foreign coins those are all keepers. I love the Bermuda nickles with the fish. LOL

I'm also an admitted pre-sixty nickel hoarder. Can't seem to find the fiftyfive P by roll searching, though. Same with the not so ubiquitous 50D.

I also keep pre 1960 nickels and I have started to keep nickels from 1960 and 1961, but only the ones without a mintmark on them, and that's because the ones in Philadelphia had less than 100 million minted (55,416,000 for the 1960 nickels, and 73,640,100 for the 1961 nickels) Their Denver counterparts were minted in the hundreds of millions, so I'm not saving those for the time being.