Buffalo Nickel Unc Rolls
Bigbuck1975
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Does anyone know if 1938-D buffalo nickels rolls were heavily hoarded as a last year of issue. If so, why don’t we see more of them available? If you have any, feel free to share photos.
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Yes they were most definitely hoarded. People knew it was the last year of the buffalo nickel and really socked them away along with other dates such as the 31-s. This is why it’s very easy to locate a nice ms 38-d and 31-s buffalo nickels out there. The 31-s was held back at the mint and released later so people snapped them up. Some ungraded that are worthy, but not all.
As far as true uncirculated rolls of 38-d buffalo nickels to be sold now is a rarity in my book. I see people that have put together 38-d rolls but not the real deal.
There’s a seller on eBay that seems to have an endless supply of uncirculated buffalo nickels, Walker half dollars, Morgan’s and Peace dollars he claims came from rolls, ENDLESS supply. Don’t believe it for a hot second. Pure Malarkey. As JB would say 😂
I agree @crazyhounddog. I doubt that canyons coins are really from rolls they find!!
I've heard it said that about half of all the surviving MS Buffalo Nickels are 1938-D's. They were heavily hoarded at the time of issue but the passage of 84 years has greatly reduced the supply of original rolls. There is no way to tell just how many original rolls are still out there.
When I first started collecting in the early 1960's it was still possible to buy uncirculated rolls of the 20th century dated Indian Cents. I haven't heard of one of those being offered in many years.
Years ago (20+) I saw a roll of Buffs (38D) offered on ebay....almost bid on them, but wanted something else at the time (was hunting CC Morgans). Have thought about that from time to time and wish I had got them. There are a lot of high grade '38D's slabbed, I have a couple....so probably from some of those rolls that were later opened. Cheers, RickO
When I was in jr. high, the neighbor across the street supposedly had a BU roll of 1909 vdbs. I never saw it, but that would be pretty cool.
I knew it would happen.
Roll collecting was the rage "back in the day". Those original rolls were where most of the nice uncirculated coins came from. They were broken up and disbursed.
Being that there was always a finite supply, it's not difficult to see where the supply would start drying up.
Rolls are very scarce today, but some still pop up every now and then.
Pete
I saw one advertised not too many years ago. VERY cool to see them spread out, wish I had bought it. I still have some partial rolls of cents form the 30's. I keep checking to see if they're worth slabbing. Not yet.
Back in the day I had an original roll of 1899 Indian Cents and a roll of 1909 VDB Lincoln Cents. I also passed on an original bag of 1887-O Silver Dollars at $1100! Those were the days.
If you look hard on flea bay you can sometimes get a real nice gem unc 38d for less than thirty bucks.
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Man years ago I was at a shop and the owner had an original roll of 1938-D Nickels. This was pre PCGS.
I picked out 6 coins and MANY years later sent them to PCGS. The all graded MS66.
Interesting question. Also, it makes me wonder how many original bags of silver dollars there are that still exists.
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My coworker says he has a roll of unc, original bank roll, Walking Liberties that he's had since the 70's. He said he's never opened it and it's worth a lot. Is there a way to tell if a roll has been opened before or can they look pristine after a search?
20 years ago 38-D rolls were not uncommon. I know several folks that would send them in for grading. 38-D's became so common in 66! I suspect there aren't too many around these days.
These coins are extremely common and readily available. So, I suspect that most of these hoarded rolls were eventually broken up, and spent. There was probably not too much financial incentive to holding on to these rolls for many years after issue.
I recall seeing freshly cracked rolls of 1913 T1 nickels and 1909 VDB cents at a show about 10 years ago. The choicest had already been cherry-picked for slabbing, but plenty were left. They had come from the heirs of a bank manager who acquired them in the 1930’s.
Around 2000, our club show had a bid board auction and a stunning gem 38D/D hadn’t met the $10 reserve. While we were cleaning up, the owner offered it to me for $5. I said okay, but then one of the club moms pleaded to buy it for her son, so I let her have it instead.
I picked up a roll of graded coins from a hoard of 22 rolls a guy had in the 90’s. They were all early gen ICG holders and most were 66 grade.
The Philadelphia Mint went merrily on with the 1938 production of Buffs. The new 1938 dies were already made and mintmarks applied.
Then the news struck about the Jefferson Nickel Debut.
Meanwhile, the Denver Mint already started production of Buffalo Nickels. With a plethora of waiting 1938 dies, the Philly Mint started to over mint marking the San Francisco dies, then shipping them to Denver for use.
That's why there's so many D/S coins out there.
Either the new dies were used, or they would be discarded. So Denver used as many as it could to produce the authorized mintage.
That's why 1938-D Buffs are so nice.
Pete
I remember getting buffalo nickels in change when I was a kid. Most were so worn the date was barely visible if at all.
Most were 37-38 checked all 37's closely for the 3 legged variety.
I did get a 1926 once with only the 26 barely visible.
I always loved the buffalo nickel due to the graphics on both sides. Morgans are my favorite, then walking liberty, buffalo nickels and standing washington quarters.
You don't see many worn out '38-D's so they command a small premium in all circulated grades.
I'd guess half of all BU buffalo rolls are '38-D (perhaps more) but I seriously doubt they account for even 10% of all BU buffs. There are also a lot of '37 rolls. and '36-P, '35-P, '34-P are quite common. '31-S's are out there. Other original rolls are apparently very scarce. There should be a smattering of late-'20's but little else.
I shouldda mentioned even though it had a lower mintage I saw a few '38-D Jeffersons for every '38-D buff.
...And the Jefferson coin was being saved by collectors as well.
It would be pretty amazing to come across a roll of 1938-D/S Buffalos.
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