Hey Jefferson full step experts

stephunter

What is your experience with searching for 1964 and earlier full step coins?

A) Do you find that mint sets have higher quality coins (i.e. ms65 and ms66 coins vs. ms64)?
Do you find that mint sets produce a higher percentage of full step coins than rolls?

kryptonitecomics

I am about to open original bank rolls of 1963 and 1963-D nickels so I will let you know if I run across any full steps.

keets

rolls are probably a better choice simply because they're more abundant. to that end, most have been searched and finding truly original, unsearched bank rolls is a stretch with the chances of a payoff slim. i've found some decent coins in rolls and Mint Sets, the trick is finding clean steps and MS63+ overall surfaces.

the common rant by those who don't know any better is that these coins were struck in the hundreds-of-millions and exist in gem state, needing only to be found by an avid collector. those of us who work the trenches know that to be a myth at best and an urban legend at worst.

al h.

seanq

Back when I was actively searching for full-steppers, I found most of my nice coins in dealer inventories, wher the dealers had gone through rolls and put the best ones out as singles. This was ten years ago, I imagine most of those inventories have been picked over by now. I have had limited success searching rolls on my own. Most of the Mint sets I've looked at are fromthe mid to late 1960s, and the nickels in them were junk.

I agree whole-heartedly with Keets, many of these coins are much rarer than most people give credit for.


Sean Reynolds

Hoot

Most of the coins that I've found in rolls have been of lesser grade - MS64 or 63, but with FS. I've found a few MS65 fs pieces in rolls, but only a few. What I look for in rolls any more are MS65 and better pices without FS. I have been quite successful at finding MS66 pieces this way and have found a couple of MS67 pieces.

Like seanq, I have found my very best FS Jeffs in dealer inventories. These can be singles or in albums. I think the reason is simply that collectors in days past were selective about the attractiveness of pieces that they stowed away, so we see some nice nickels preserved in flips and albums. Found some beauties this way.

As for Mint sets, I always look at them. I've found some nice pieces in Mint sets, but mostly post-1970.

Hoot

cdwegner

I went through a roll of 1967s and only two *barely* at *one* step at all. Truly amazing.

cdwegner

Oh, this reminds me of an auction I saw last night.

It was one of those "Grandpappy bought this bank wrapped roll of cents in 1955. It's in the safe since.".... "OH! and buy the way, for the protection of the coins, I took them out and put them in a plastic coin container for you."

Thanks...

c

kryptonitecomics

<< <i>Oh, this reminds me of an auction I saw last night.

It was one of those "Grandpappy bought this bank wrapped roll of cents in 1955. It's in the safe since.".... "OH! and buy the way, for the protection of the coins, I took them out and put them in a plastic coin container for you."

Thanks...

c >>



Very nice of them to disturb the original rolls...........knuckleheads!!!!

Well I actually do have two authentic bank wrapped rolls and......I am just about to open them.....full steps or not, the toning on the end coins has me excitied....that nice blue/gun metal gray with sprinkles of other light reds, blues, golds, orange etc

GoYankees

In the near future, I'm going to open my original bank roll of 1964-D nickels. If I find something cool, I'll post it.

stephunter

I ask these questions because I have not had much luck finding them in rolls. But, with that said, I think that the majority of rolls that I have searched have probably already been checked. I bought a $50.00 bag of 61-D in what appeared to be original bank wrapped rolls. I think they were original because the end coins had a light blue tone on them and the wrappers were blue. As everyone that hunts for full step coins knows the 61-D is one of the toughest dates to find a full step coin. After searching all 2000 coins I did not come up with any full step coins. After searching about 10,000 coins in the last year I have "made" about 3-4 full step coins. Not great odds, but it is fun and when you do get a score it is all worth the effort. I recently found a 53 that will go off to Pcgs soon. A big score if it is FS.

cladking

I don't have a lot of experience with the older mint sets but my observation would
be that the older sets contained nickels which tended to be from newer dies, but
were not necessarily better made or struck with more pressure. In those days all
the coins were struck on vertical single presses if memory serves, and most all coins
would get most of the details of the die. These dies were not swapped out until
they were badly worn but the initial strikes would be about as good as it gets. The
mint set coins are struck from newer dies under similar conditions so a higher per-
centage will be gem but the gems will only be about equivalent to what went into
rolls.

The more recent mint set nickels are far superior in strike to roll coins on average.
Also the gems are almost certainly better but I'm not sure I've seen gems from rolls
for comparison. Mint set coins are often marked up severely and in some cases it's
problematical to find nickels since 1964 in mint sets which are both well struck and
not banged up.

seanq

I recently made a 1979 in 64FS, which came from an original roll. I had one other one too, raw, which I sold years ago on eBay for less than $10. You can find them, but expect to go bleary-eyed in the process.


Sean Reynolds

kryptonitecomics

Well the 1963-D roll is opened and all in 2X2s........I'll be lucky to find a 3 step nickel in the bunch


I can't say that I am surprised since the price for a MS65FS from that year and mint books for like $675 in coin prices.

cdwegner

what did the roll cost you?

kryptonitecomics

$5.00 dollars. I bought a 63 and a 63-D for about $5.00 bucks a piece. It was still a lot of fun looking through the coins one at a time and who knows....I still have the 1963 roll to search???

cdwegner

From what people have told me though, it would be a miracle to find a 1967 FS nickel... what to do.. what to do...

stephunter

"From what people have told me though, it would be a miracle to find a 1967 FS nickel... what to do.. what to do... "

The 1967 Sms coins will not get designated full steps on the holder, but you should not have to much trouble finding a coin that does have full steps. Possible solution to the issue.

cdwegner

stephunter,

My problem is that I'm trying to find a non-SMS 1967 FS nickel.

This may become a life quest...

c