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Why you don't find as many Nickels!

KY-Todd

Full Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
162
Location
Kentucky
If this has been addressed before on this forum please forgive me. Anyway, I have read many times so far on this forum that people wonder why they do not find that many nickels. After I read a few of these posts, I thought that I would share my thoughts.
The reason we don't find that many nickels is because we do not get that many any change and there are fewer to lose (provided that you don't disc them out).
If you think about it, whenever you make a purchase where coins are required as part of your change (change = xdollars + 1 cent to 99 cents), you will only receive a maximum of 1 nickel for all 99 scenarios (that is $x.01 through $x.99). You could receive a max of 3 quarters, a max of 2 dimes or a max of 4 pennies, but, you will only receive a max of 1 nickel. Of course this is provided that the cashier has an ample amount of change to provide the least amount of coins to make change.
If you do the math, you will find on average that you should see ~5 x as many pennies as nickels, 2 x as many dimes as nickels and ~3.75 x as many quarters than nickels.

Now with that said, in my very, very short time of detecting, I have found mostly pennies (~57% of my coin finds) and not as many quarters as I should have based on my logic above. This could be explained a few ways. 1) People, besides me, won't pick them up when they see them whereas they would pick up a nickel, dime or quarter 2) pennies, as well as dimes, are harder to see on the ground than quarters.

My two tabs, ust thought I would share for what it's worth - not much:lol:
Todd
 
Yep when I drop a clad silver coin I spend a little more time looking for it than I do a penny. Ice
 
I started a post just last week with the same question and received quite a few answers. Your reasoning was interesting, and made a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing it with us.
GiGi
 
Hay Tod,

I find more nickels than quarters.
I find just as many nickles as dimes.

If it has been hunted heavily, I may
find more nickes than any other coin.

So the math doesn't apply and the
absence of nickles does not exist.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog
 
Nice logic Todd.

IMHO, another factor is that a penny is more difficult to see when someone first drops it in the grass or bare earth. The "shiny" coins may be picked up by someone shortly afterwards, but the "dark" pennies start their migration downward.
 
Ouch My Head Hurts

Todd I was wondering about the nickels myself. Good logic and I understood everything that you said--now it's time to go find an asprin.
Basset
 
Let’s look at this a different way. These are facts that cannot be argued with. I picked two random years (2001 & 2002) and looked up mintage records (doesn’t include coins in proof sets – includes only Denver and Philly coins struck for circulation) for pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. As expected, during these two years there were 2.1 times as many dimes struck than nickels, 3.2 times more quarters struck than nickels and a whopping 7.0 times more pennies struck than nickels. So, as there are fewer nickels minted than the other denominations, it only makes “cents,” that there are fewer nickels to find at virgin sites. Of course if you are hunting at a site where someone else just hunted and that person chose to disc out nickels, then of course you could end up finding more nickels than anything else, but this should not be the case at a virgin site.

Other variables include, but are not limited to, 1) quarters are easier to see on the ground and can easily be snatched up before they start their journey into the ground. 2) Dimes are the smallest denomination and therefore could drop without the person knowing it. 3) Pennies, especially the ones that have turned brown are harder to see on the ground and some folks, even if they see one brown or shiny new, will not exert the effort it takes to bend over and pick it up.

Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. But this makes “cents” to me. ;)
 
when you get change, you can get a maximum of 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 4 pennies, 1 nickel. this is the max of each kind of coin you can get, not all of these at once. ie you could get a max of four pennies in change because 5 = a nickel. max of 1 nickel because 2 = a dime. Catch my drift?
 
I just counted my change jar the other day, and I guess this would be pretty close to true. $45 in quarters, $50 in dimes, and $20 in nickels.
 
Well.. all of those lines of thinking apply IMO... I am sure a lot depends on what area you hunt as well... for example, totlots are likely to have more nickels (kids spending money), beaches, loose change for snacks will cover the spectrum, sports fields - hard to say, but larger change usually for teen-agers (they don't bother with pennies, nickles and dimes much)... lots of reasons for coin distribution. RickO
 
I think you're "dead on " about the nickels....my percentages on the last 12,000 coins I've found run - 67 % pennies, 7 % nickels, 9 % quarters, about 17 % dimes...RR
 
I haven't found a nickel yet... only a quarter, a dime and a number of pennies... so I guess you're right....:roll:
 
I dig more nickels then pennies. What I'm looking for rings up in the nickel range, so I dig them more then anything else. I'm not really looking to go out and find some clad. I would rather look for the bling.
 
Hay guys,

I don't go along with the nickel thing.

Most everywhere has been hunted.

I have a small jar I keep my dirty clad
in until I get enough to clean.

I just counted the nickels, dimes and
quarters.

8 quarters
22dimes
20 nickles

11-4-1.jpg


There is no shortage of nickles that I
can see.

Happy Hunting,

Tabdog
 
Todd - I beg to differ - I think the reason more nickels are not dug is that they are harder (read lower disc) to find and a lot off guys dont want to dig much trash. So far this year I have dug well over 900 nickels. Plus the gold is right there in the same range. Steve in so az
 
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