JEFFERSON NICKELS . . Very Undervalued Series!
by: mintex03
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Pennies, nickels, dimes,. . .Does anybody really pay attention to them anymore? When you think about it, most would say, "Who cares? They don't buy anything!" In this hustle-bustle, wait in line, sit stopped in traffic, world that we live in, it is almost easy to agree with that attitude! But, I came from a different time. A time when "penny" candy still existed. A time when a Coke cost a nickel, and the change from your silver quarter probably contained a Buffalo or wartime nickel! My generation knew that all nickels weren't just Jefferson Nickels. We collected them like crazy! In the early 1960's it seemed as though the whole world went insane with everybody looking for 1939-D and 1950-D nickels! At one time in the mid 1960's, a dealer in Milwaukee owned almost 10,000 rolls of BU 1950-D coins, and another dealer in Houston, between 1951 and 1964, reportedly had emased a hoard of at least 1-million pieces! Between them, they controlled about 60% of the entire mintage and by 1964 had driven prices to $600.00 a roll for circulated coins! This single event prompted the U.S. Congress to enact legislation to remove mintmarks from all coins in an effort to "PUT AN END" to coin hoarding and collecting. After that, it just seems like everybody lost interest in collecting Jeffersons.
To young coin collectors who have just started collecting in the last ten years or so, Jefferson nickels are the only kind of nickels that they know. Sure, they know about Buffalos and Liberty Heads, but only in passing. Odds are, they'll never find one in their change, or for that matter, ever even own one unless they buy it. And, unless they have a lot of money to invest, they probably won't become "serious" collectors of any other nickels. But that's OK! Jeffersons are very collectible. Sure, you've seen them all of your life, but don't kid yourself . . . . a nice set of Jefferson Nickels is no pushover! Just like a good book, loaded with discovery and intrigue, the Jefferson Nickel series is loaded with discovery, variety and intrigue. First if all, lets not forget, Jeffersons have been produced for almost seventy years. In that time there have been many scarce dates, and many rare errors have also been identified. Now days, with coin production levels as high as they are, the "KEY COINS" of any particular series are going to be varieties or errors!
Throughout the Jefferson Nickel series, there are several "KEY" coins. The 1950-D is the lowest mintage with only 2.6 million. Next is the 1939-D with 3.5 million, and then the 1938 D & S and the 1939-S, each with 4-6 million pieces. These coins are really cheap! You can buy a nice circulated 1950-D for less than $10.00 and a 1939-D for $8.00. There are somewhere around six million nickel collectors (according to the ANA) of all types. However, with the rarest regular issue date Jefferson (1950-D) selling at only $10, I have to believe that most of them collect Buffalos and Liberty Head types. In addition to the key dates, there are at least eight more semi-key issues all with mintages of ten million or fewer pieces.
The Jefferson Series is also RICH with very underpriced and easily identifiable errors. The most notable of these is the 1943/2 P. It is one of only nine overdate coin varieties (Including Gold Coins) of the enire 20th Century! It's population has been estimated at 30,000 - 50,000 pieces in all grades. This is an extremely undervalued coin in all circulated grades and a true rarity in uncirculated grades! This is just one of the rare "War Nickel" varieties produced during WW-II. Also in 1943 there is a distinct doubled die obverse variety which is commonly called the "Double-Eye" variety, and a bold 1945-P doubled die reverse. With more than half of all war nickels having been melted for their silver content, all three of these issues are many times more rare than current prices reflect. There is another bold doubled die reverse variety in 1939; a 1942 D over Horizontal-D; a 1946 D over Horizontal-D; a 1949 D/S; a 1954 S/D; and 1955 D/S varieties exist. There are no "official" mintage figures for these varities, however, production estimates for the 1939 DDR (FS-022) is 150,000; the 1942 D/HorizD 200,000; the 1946 D/HorizD is rare (no estimate); the 1949 D/S is very scarce, est. 60,000; the 1954 S/D 300,000; and the 1955 D/S only Die I&2 command a significant premium. (10 Dies at least). That is a lot of variety! Not only that, but all of these varieties were produced somewhere between 50-75 years ago. How many do you think are still left?
If that isn't enough of a reason to tackle the Jefferson Nickel series,
I dare you to attempt putting together a complete set with FULL STEPS ! You could easily spend TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS and many years TRYING to complete this task! There are still many dates and mints that are unknown with full steps. Imagine finding one of them!
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