Searching nickel rolls? Find out which OLD NICKELS to look for in coin rolls when you’re doing NICKEL COIN ROLL hunting!
RELATED VIDEO: Coin Roll Searching TIPS
RELATED ARTICLE: What To Look For When Nickel Coin Roll Hunting
Searching nickel rolls is a fun hobby! As a collector of coins for 30+ years, nickel coin roll hunting is STILL one of my favorite budget-friendly ways to find valuable nickels. In this video, I’m showing you which old nickels to look for in nickel rolls that you buy from a bank or grocery store.
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⚡TIMESTAMPS FROM THE VIDEO⚡
00:00 – Why We’re Doing This Video
00:16 – We Bought 1 Roll Of Nickels For $2.00
00:28 – Nickel Coin Roll Hunting: What To Expect
00:42 – The Nickels We’re Looking For 01:00 Buffalo Nickels (1913-1938)
01:10 – Pre-1938 Nickels (Before Jefferson Nickels)
01:56 – War Nickels (1942-1945)
03:26 – Reasons To Use A Coin Loupe Or Magnifying Glass
03:36 – Varieties & Errors Explained 05:07
1964 – Nickel 05:23 1907 Liberty Nickel
05:41 – Reminiscing About A 1891 Coin With Patina
06:37 – Patina Examples & Dark Colored Coins
08:11 – 1985 Nickel Value
08:53 – Nickels You Can Find In Circulation Today
10:40 – Visiting Monticello (Jefferson’s Virginia Home)
11:45 – Jamie Franki Nickels (Forward-Facing Jefferson)
11:55 – Felix Schlag Nickels (Side Profile Jefferson)
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, I’m Josh with The Fun Times Guide. This is my wife Jeanine. And we are here to unveil the insides of this… of these paper-wrapped nickels. Some come in cellophane or like a kind of a plastic. Well, we have the roll open. This is the problem with rolls sometimes… You might go to the bank or the store asking for a roll of coins thinking you’ll get like a mixed-date roll. And it’s a NEW roll — like all last year’s coins or this year’s. Which could behoove you if you’re looking for new varieties. But we’re looking for older dates.
First thing I’m looking for and I’m sure you are too — cause we both are coin fanatics! Looking for… Well, I more than she… I think you would agree with that right? Yes, I do. You’re more of a coin fan — no attic. I live up in the attic so. (No you don’t.) I’m a “fan attic.” We’re looking for Buffalo nickels or anything before Jeffersons — which first were minted in 1938. And I see nothing here BUT Jefferson nickels. So, it’s not a terribly old roll of nickels. And I’m looking right now… So far I see nothing of any great merit.
I see a 1964. You know what’s crazy? Honey, remember when I first started this hobby in the early 90s and an old nickel… like you could tell an old nickel. They have a dingy, dusty look. I remember you telling me about this. They were from the 40s or the 50s. This nickel I swear was like 1962… 1980! When did 80s coins start to look old? I don’t understand that. That makes me feel old because I’m about as old as this coin. So anyway. We don’t really see any fantastically rare nickels here.
I see a ’64 Philadelphia. You know, what you can do with rolls of nickels though. You can get lucky. I’ll tell you how you get lucky. From 1942 through ’45 the US Mint struck nickels NOT from a 75% copper and 25% nickel alloy like most nickels are. But from a 35% silver, 56% manganese, and 9% copper composition. Now why did they do that? That’s because the World War II effort to help save nickel for artillery was going on. And the US government decided that it was better to replace the nickel in nickels with a different alloy — which included a 35% silver mix in there. So, the neat thing about nickels is you can still find to this day… I found in recent times… I found silver nickels. (Oxymoron I know!) But silver 5-cent coins. Huh? Are they Buffalo? No they’re Jefferson nickels. Because Jefferson’s profile debuted in 1938 on the nickel. And war nickels started just after, in 1942. So they were still new. But you CAN find silver 5-cent coins. Silver Jefferson nickels. I feel so weird saying “silver nickels,” but that’s what they call them. You know, war nickels. You can find them in circulation. You can find them in rolls. In fact a lot of folks that I know have found oodles of silver 5-cent coins in rolls of nickels. So that was one of the hopes tonight was we’d find some silver nickels.
What do you have over there? A dirty… a dirty Jefferson. A dirty Jefferson — ooh, a dirty Jefferson! What year is this? Let me get my handy dandy coin loupe out. I have an HE Harris coin loupe. You really can’t go too far in the hobby without a nice coin loupe in hand. I use a 5x to 10x magnification because it’s great for looking for varieties or errors. If you get too high-powered, you see every little last nick on a coin and then you think everything is an error. I’ll say this… If an error or variety cannot be seen without at least a 10x magnification, it’s probably not worth keeping — because collectors tend to value oddities that can be seen with the naked eye. Now not all can see every error or variety with the naked eyes. But in general, the more obvious the error or variety the better — for both value and how desirable the coin is.
Let’s see, we have a 1985 Jefferson nickel. And it has a mint mark from Denver. 1985… my birth year. Yes, yes I was born a little earlier. So you could say that uh… If you watch the pennies video, you’ll find out what year he was born. Yes, I won’t reveal in this video. You’re gonna have to watch our penny roll video to find out how old I am. I know it’s a burning desire to find out how old I am. Everyone wants to know. So if you’ve got to find out… Phraseology… “burning desire.” Burning desire! Coins and burning desires. Just don’t burn your coins. Because that would be illegal. Awkward. Especially in the case of cents and nickels in the US. I have a whole bunch of newer ones. Yeah, I can tell… I’m looking through these kind of at a glance. We have nothing of any great note here. Mostly 1980s and more recent.
The one 1964 nickel is really not a big value find. What is your favorite nickel that you have had. Ever? I once came across in change at a local fast food restaurant whose logo includes some golden arches… a 1907 Liberty nickel. And it was handed to me right in the change. I like… A Liberty nickel from 1907. 1907… wow! Yeah, it had like a “V” on the back, which is the Roman numeral for five… 5 cents. Oh yeah, I remember that! And that is the oldest coin, if memory serves me, I’ve ever found in my 30+ years of collecting coins that I’ve ever found in circulation was the ’07 “V” or Liberty nickel.
I had an 1891 penny when I was a kid. And my favorite coin that I had was a rainbow patina coin. It was a nickel. I had a couple other ones, but this one was a nickel. And it had such pretty coloring and I didn’t find out until I was older from Josh that there’s a difference between chemical and regular just like in-your-hand patina. Mine was from being just in different hands. And it was beautiful. It had like blue, purple, green, reddish, a reddish pinky tone. It was literally like a rainbow patina. The other ones had partial… But… You know my wife Jeanine, she speaks about patina. A lot of folks have asked me about what their dark coins are worth, or your pink nickels, or green nickels, or whatever. And for the most part, discoloration or patination that’s pretty common on circulated coins. And uncirculated also. And total kismet, I happened to pull up this 2017 Philadelphia nickel that has some… At least to my eyes anyway… I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it on the camera or not. But you probably cannot tell. And I doubt you can see it. But there’s like a rusty kind of like a russet color on this nickel. Yeah, this one here… This is similar.
What year is that? Yeah, that would be from 2000… I can tell from the portrait of Jefferson… 2018! So the year after this nickel. Okay, so both of them have that russet coloring. Dark kind of russet. Well, it’s kind of part russet, part gray. And that’s just environmental damage, if you will. I mean… In fact, it kind of has like a rusty look to it actually. And it’s not rust cause nickels don’t rust. Sulfur in fact… That’s a big issue when it comes to coins and discoloration. Sulfur discoloration — it gives like a yellow kind of look to it. What about this one? This one is a 19… It’s dingy looking. Oh this is the ’64 nickel I came across earlier. Oh yeah. It has a dingy look I will tell you though actually this nickel has a patination that’s actually pretty desirable for a nickel. It has a very natural coloration you can tell it’s never been cleaned.
This one is a 1985 nickel. It looks like it was cleaned some time ago. But it was very dark originally and there’s a lot in the recesses of the design — a lot of darkness. And then the top is very light like it’s almost too bright for a nickel of this age. So I surmise it was probably cleaned at some point. Interesting. And you know what this roll really goes to show? Not every roll is going to land a bunch of great finds.
I want to make this very clear. A lot of folks online will say, “Oh yeah, you can find this million dollar penny in your rolls today. That’s not the way it works! Most times you’re going to find through going through rolls… Or boxes of coins… Or through your change. You’re not going to find really much of anything. And that’s just the reality of looking for coins in circulation. But having said that, there really are… There are treasures out there if you know what to look for. You want to look for errors. Look for varieties.
What are 5 nickels to look for in change? Off the bat, I can give you a couple of groups of nickels to look for — and I’ll give you some dates. Any war nickels which have a large mint mark on the reverse of the coin (the backside of the coin). A mintmark over the dome of Monticello — which is the Virginia mansion in which Jefferson lived. War nickels have… Besides a date of ’42 to ’45… And by the way, there are some 1942 nickels that are NOT silver. But ALL war nickels have a large “P” for Philadelphia, “D” for Denver, or “S” for San Francisco on the reverse (or back side of the nickel) over the dome of Monticello. Those are the ones that contain silver. And there are 11 regular dates — along with some varieties — that contain silver. So those are 11! I’m giving you a bonus those are 11 nickels right there to look for that contain silver. But beyond the 11 in that group of war nickels… Buffalo nickels minted from 1913 to 1938. Any of those are worth at least 50 cents up to a buck a pop, no matter what date. And you can find those in circulation. I actually have found some in circulation. And Liberty nickels as well. And 1939 Denver or “D” nickels and 1950-D nickels are the two scarcest dates among Jefferson nickels in the whole series. And they’re worth between 5 and 10 bucks at a minimum in circulated condition. So War nickels, Buffalo nickels, Liberty nickels — which again I’ve found those all in circulation. And they’re worth looking for. 1939-D and 1950-D nickels… Those are all keepers!
Didn’t you write about the Monticello being on the back — when we took pictures? Well so… We went to Monticello and we met… He’s like a world renowned… He’s a world renowned Thomas Jefferson impersonator essentially. And we got to meet Jefferson. Is there an article on that? There is! In fact, if you go to The Fun Times Guide… Every date of coin I just mentioned — as well as Liberty nickels and Buffalo nickels and such — you can find all my articles on those coins. As well as values and anything else you want to ask about on TheFunTimesGuide.com. So please go. You’ll find everything you want to know about coins on there. And pictures. I find pictures VERY helpful. And then there’s also a picture of us at Monticello in Virginia. At Monticello. And yours truly holding a nickel in front of Monticello. A Jefferson nickel, I should say — in front of Monticello. That was a dream picture come true. Dream come true. Yes.
Speaking of dreams… I think it’s time for all of us to sign off. Because this was not a massively valuable bunch of nickels here. But it was very fun to show you going through his nickels. And talking a bit about what to look for. So in summation, we have 19? Yes… Of the newer coins with Jamie Franki’s obverse (or front head side) design. A half face of Jefferson facing you. And then I guess the rest are… The rest are the Felix Schlag nickels with the original side profile of Jefferson. Yep. This is Josh with The Fun Times Guide. My wonderful lovely wife Jeanine. Please like this video. Comment below. Share, subscribe, and go to TheFunTimesGuide.com to find out much more about all these coins — and more. And… high five… signing off. High five.
