Buffalo Nickels

my dad said that he would still see some of them until the late sixties and early seventies. If you look through boxes of nickels you should still be able to find one every two or three boxes, but most of them tend to be dateless or common 36's and 35's

It is really interesting that Buffalo nickels circulated some 30 years after being produced. It does make you wonder, now that they are rare in circulation, why they aren't worth more for even the commons.

I heard similar stories on wheats- seeing them 20 years later still in circulation. You can also find maybe 5-10 wheats per $25 box of pennies today, still.

My grandfather exposed me to the hobby in the early 70s.
He would pull out his pocket change now and again
and dig through it to give me coins.
I remember getting Franklins, Buffalos, and Mercs...
Straight from his pocket change.
I also remember he would throw his Kennedys aside when he got them.
Later I found out they were 90/40 silvers, and he was pulling them.
This was around 74... By 76, things started getting thin.
I believe it was due to the Bicent coins.
Folks pulled them and it turned them on to pulling other
'obsoletes' that they might not have noticed before.

War Nickels were often in my pocket change into the early 90s.
I don't find them much anymore. Maybe 1 or 2 a year now.
However, I don't do rolls or hoard, other than keeping my
pocket change.

Edit:
To clarify the stuff from the early 70s...

The Franklins were decent.
Walkers were smooth.
Buffalos were smooth and dateless.
Mercs were better than smooth, but not much.
I vaguely remember some Indian cents... but not commonly.

I was very young, and he was a collector, so he kept most,
cherry picked, and he didn't give me any 90% 'current' designs.
I'm sure I didn't know the difference between clad and silver
back then. So he had no reason to give me silver,
when I was just as happy with clad.

I remember arguing with him when he presented me with a 90% dime
and a clad dime. He said "this one is silver..." and I would say
"So is this one!" refering to the clad.
5 year olds just don't get it!

I bought a collection of buffalo's from a guy for $550. These are the dates included 1913-1
1913D-1
1913S-1
1913-II
1914
1914S
1915
1915D
1915S
1916
1916D
1916S
1917
1917D
1918
1918D
1918S
1919
1919D
1920
1920D
1920S
1921
1921S
1923
1923S
1924
1924D
1925
1925D
1925S
1926
1927
1927D
1928
1928D
1928S
1929
1929D
1929S
1930
1930S
1931S
1934
1934D
1935
1935D
1935S
1936
1936D
1936S
1937
1937D
1937S
1938D
Did I get a good deal or a bad one?

I meant to say, are NOT full horns, but partials.

I didn't mean mint state 20, just 20 on the 70 grading system. My bad. New at this thing.

so Wheaties stays for 30 years, Buffalos stayed for 30 years, copper pennies are going to stay for 30 years because of all this copper hoarding. lol