AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
Out of curiousity, I was wondering what you all do with the older Jefferson nickels that you find. As we all know, prior to 2004, the design and composition hadn’t changed in about 65 years (other than the silver war nickels) - an extraordinarily long run, but it also makes them monumentally ordinary! Especially in dug condition, a Jefferson nickel from 1941 is worth the same as a Jefferson from 1998...about 5 cents.
I know a lot of folks here don’t bother keeping non-silver coins that hold little value. There are plenty of threads where folks have mentioned just tossing their wheat back pennies in with the rest of their clad, and probably the same goes for their Jefferson nickels.
In my case, I keep my wheaties. Sure, the design is obsolete, but that isn’t enough to convince me to keep them - otherwise, by that logic, I would be keeping Lincoln Memorial cents too. I think I keep wheaties because I grew up thinking of them as “old” - I’m old enough that you would still find Wheaties in your change if you took the time to look, but I’m young enough that anything from the 50s or earlier seems “old”. Plus, I do like the design on the reverse of a Wheatie - to me, it emphasizes that the coin is from another era.
All that said, everytime I pull up an older Jefferson, I have a mini debate with myself. Last week, I unearthed a ‘47 at an old school location and a ‘41 in a curb strip, and the debate started again - save them or chuck ‘em in with the clad. There’s nothing about the design that seems special to me - I’ve seen those nickels all my life, and most of the nickels in our pockets still look identical. At the same time, each of those that I dug last week are over 70 years old.
Anyway, as always, I ended up putting them into a pill bottle with the rest of my dug 40s and 50s Jefferson nickels. In my mind, I’ve come to define “old coin” as anything prior to 1960 for nickels. A little arbitrary for Jefferson nickels, because there’s nothing to delineate a 1960 Jefferson nickel from a 1959 other than that I’ve drawn my own line in the sand for what’s “old” and worth keeping!
How about you? Just pitch them in with other clad? Or do you keep them before a certain date?
I know a lot of folks here don’t bother keeping non-silver coins that hold little value. There are plenty of threads where folks have mentioned just tossing their wheat back pennies in with the rest of their clad, and probably the same goes for their Jefferson nickels.
In my case, I keep my wheaties. Sure, the design is obsolete, but that isn’t enough to convince me to keep them - otherwise, by that logic, I would be keeping Lincoln Memorial cents too. I think I keep wheaties because I grew up thinking of them as “old” - I’m old enough that you would still find Wheaties in your change if you took the time to look, but I’m young enough that anything from the 50s or earlier seems “old”. Plus, I do like the design on the reverse of a Wheatie - to me, it emphasizes that the coin is from another era.
All that said, everytime I pull up an older Jefferson, I have a mini debate with myself. Last week, I unearthed a ‘47 at an old school location and a ‘41 in a curb strip, and the debate started again - save them or chuck ‘em in with the clad. There’s nothing about the design that seems special to me - I’ve seen those nickels all my life, and most of the nickels in our pockets still look identical. At the same time, each of those that I dug last week are over 70 years old.
Anyway, as always, I ended up putting them into a pill bottle with the rest of my dug 40s and 50s Jefferson nickels. In my mind, I’ve come to define “old coin” as anything prior to 1960 for nickels. A little arbitrary for Jefferson nickels, because there’s nothing to delineate a 1960 Jefferson nickel from a 1959 other than that I’ve drawn my own line in the sand for what’s “old” and worth keeping!
How about you? Just pitch them in with other clad? Or do you keep them before a certain date?
I find myself looking and appreciating the 'depth of strike' on the older Jeffs even in pocket change...the newer coins are so shallowly struck, no regard to die crispness and tonnage set up...its like they are minting cheap play money...
