Nickels By The Ton

I did well several years ago selling off my coin collection but I have also been picking up coins as well.  A very eclectic collection todate, to say the least!

My main interest has always been Jefferson nickels.  Of course, with complete amnesia I can not tell you why I liked him, why I liked the US Mint nickels nor even what I already have!  So, this past weekend, I dug out one of my boxes and began sorting through it.  :)

I quickly figured out on Friday that I needed some form of a database to keep track of what I was finding.  So, I pulled up my old Dbase 3+ software from antiquity and ... it does not actually run under today's technology ... sigh ... it wants an environment with two 5.25 inch floppy drives!  So that left only Word or Excel to do the listing in, I opted for Excel.  It was a bit nerve wracking since I was having to do this with no manual - who knows where they are!  But, I got a nice layout that tracks dealers, purchasing information on all of the coins, the nickels, the proof varieties, the errors I have collected, Washington State nickel tokens used a century ago during coinage shortages and then eclectic things like: artistic commemorative medals.

And the great sorting began.

Rather quickly I realized that I have quite a few duplicates in just the proof nickels I was working on.  I guess I can either sell those at a fall show or off to my coin dealer friend.  How many 1962 proof nickels does one need?!?!?!?  And, why on Earth did I buy so many?  Are they rare?  I must find out!  But, I have only opened one box so far!  And surprisingly I have quite a few of the rarest of the Jefferson nickels!  I may have known or guessed at the time certain varieties would be rare and indeed 1994 and 1997 had special issues with a satin texture, only 25,000 of those it seems were made!  I guess I own a percentage of those strikes!  So, they should sell!

And, I surprised myself that I did own one of what I think is America's high point in coinage: the 1925 Norse American Centennial on a thick flan!

If you are interested, my second choice for most beautiful coin from the US Mint is the 1937 Oregon Trail Commemorative!

Yeah, those were made the era when coinage was an art form and the US Mint produced some great pieces, but these two were the best of the best - well except the $20 gold piece!  But, who has that kind of money?  LOL.

It will take me weeks to completely dig through just this one box and I have three more to sort through as well!  So, lots to keep me interested in as I rest and recover between long walks and exercise periods!