confused about mintage quantities in red book?

JTMC

i was just going through the buffalo nickle section in the red book seeing which dates i needed to buy and i noticed (as an example) a 1924 s mintage of 1,437,000 in XF is $1000 and a 1931 s with mintage of 1,200,000 in XF is $15. anyone know why such a huge price difference.?

RNCHSN

I'm not a Buffalo collector, but I suspect it is a Condition rarity situation. There may have bben that many minted, but most of them are probably heavily circulated. This would make the XF+ grades more valuable, due to their scarcity in the higher grades.

cladking

The 31-S was saved in significant quantities because it was known to
be a better date at the time. Coin collecting was much smaller in 1924
so fewer were saved. By the time people did consider saving them, they
had already worn down to VF/XF so were less desirable and still ignored.
Someone with five cents to invest in the midst of the depression was far
more likely to save an unc 31-S than a worn '24-S. By the time people
had more money in the '40's, the 24-S was getting pretty hard to find in
XF, but the 31-S was still available.

Catch22

Most likely due to Pop Reports suggesting difficulty locating in the higher grades. Once a coin is determined to be rare in Mint State, that puts pressure on the higher circulated grades.

Conder101

To add another factor to Cladking's comments, the 31-S nickel probably also benefited from some extra saving by association. The 1931-S CENT was definitely known to be a very low mintage and potential rarity. So almost the entire mintage was hoarded as soon as it was produced. Some of these people probably saved the five cent pieces as well under the theory that other denominations might also be better performers as well.

DDR

I think that the main reason is that the 24-S was very weakly struck. Therefore, it appears to wear very rapidly so that 24-S's in high grades are very rare. It is not difficult to find a worn 24-S, but it is extremely difficult to find one in higher circulated grades, particularly with a full horn. Thus the high price.

JTMC

thanks for all the info guys.