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APMEX War Nickel Rolls...Worth More Unopened or Opened, Examined & Placed In Whitman Nickel Folder?
dealer6871
Posts: 35 ✭✭
I have a roll of War Nickels that I ordered from APMEX. Got a membership to the ANA (annual) and received a premium of an unlabeled Whitman nickel coin folder. Just wondering what the readers/collectors/dealers, etc. think I should do with this.
APMEX War Nickel Rolls...Worth More Unopened or Opened, Examined & Placed In Whitman Nickel Folder?
This is a public poll: others will see what you voted for.
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APMEX packaging is worthless to me.
It's a tradable unit in the APMEX wrapper and fairly easy to sell as a roll. If you open it you'll probably find that you are way short of a set of the war nickels. Probably no high grade or coin errors in the roll. Leave it alone and let it roll to the back of the drawer and then add other rolls of silver coins to your stash.
war nickels are a great starter set for a YN. Can't think of a better investment into the hobby than finding a young one who is intrigued by the story that copper was so in demand that they used Silver (alloy) for nickels for 4 years during the great War. One of my first complete sets. To these eyes that would be the best way to maximize their value.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
How would we know if you got ripped off if we don't know what you paid?
I would sell you a roll of circulated war nickels for $50 (U.S. shipping included). If you paid under that, you got a deal. If you paid much over $60, not so much. [Melt value on war nickels is about $50 per roll right now.]
War nickels are kind of cool (having significant silver content), but they're neither rare nor expensive. I have lots of them that I took out of circulation when I was a kid.
Collecting coins "to maximize profit" is not a good business plan, IMO, if you are actually a "collector"; if you're a dealer, good luck to you. As a collector, you'd be better off putting your money in a money market fund, which has almost no risk and practically guaranteed return. It appears that you paid $29 for twenty "average circulated" nickels; if so, you paid approximately $1.45 per nickel, which is barely above the silver melt value of those nickels. They have not appreciated significantly in numismatic value over those 80 years; they are entirely a play in the junk silver market, if you think of them as an "investment."
Enjoy the nickels for what they are, an interesting historical anomaly. Do what you want with them. But don't fool yourself into thinking that you'll ever make any significant money on them, kept in the roll or broken out and sold.
Wanna make money at this hobby? There's no guaranteed way to do that, of course; but the best way is to buy rare coins in high grades, and keep them for a while. Generally speaking, it appears to me that the less rare a coin is, and the lower its grade, the less likely it is to show significant appreciation over time. Those nickels aren't going to see appreciation, except as (and if) silver increases in value (and it's worth keeping in mind that the price of silver was just under $50/oz in 1980, twice what it is now).
What were your intentions for buying the roll? I would stay with them. You could check for errors or varieties! I doubt a roll of worn war nickels will appreciate much over any distance of time......unless you think $53.00 is a lot of money! Did you want to join the ANA? For what purpose? Filling up a coin folder can be a lot of fun if you're like 8 years old.
Happy hunting!
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
People much older than 8 like to fill coin folders.
Don't you want to open the roll and see if its an entire roll of 1943-Ps, or maybe you get a fun mix. Who can resist filling up folders?
I can't.
Just open the roll. You might/might not be surprised. Christmas in August
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Oh.....I meant to say 8 to 103! Oops!
Leo
The more qualities observed in a coin, the more desirable that coin becomes!
My Jefferson Nickel Collection
30 years ago I bought an entire odw (original dealer roll) roll set of uncirculated warnickels. I resisted breaking them open and am very glad I did not do so.
Even though your roll is a circulated roll and the chances of seeing it appreciate in value is much less so it is still worth keeping it intact.
Someday, an unopened Apmex dealer wrapped roll will become more desired than is today.
It’s a circulated roll, to me APMEX wrapper is nothing special. If it’s uncirculated original roll, I would keep it like that.
Apmex is better than buying from the television guys.
So, it's a half roll.
There was a much higher premium in the spring.
I hear you! I have a few old coins, all purposely in circulated condition, that I like in significant part for imagining the stories they could tell (if they could tell stories; this one was held by Socrates, that one by George Washington...).
It's just that you asked for advice on what to do with your nickels, and it's not really possible to give you advice on them. They probably make excellent album fillers (but, statistically, almost certainly will not form a complete date/mintmark set of them), but I agree that they're interesting coins (as I said).
Enjoy the hobby for what it is, and enjoy your nickels!
I would say (hope) you got as least as much value in enjoyment by opening the roll as any difference in value could have been by leaving it sealed.
I can’t tell by the pics (on my phone) what you really got, but I’m imagining it’s exactly what you would have expected.
Apmex sells uncirculated rolls too, but those rolls are not so cheap.
having bought many rolls from APMEX and waiting to open them, I found much disappointment because about half the coins were plagued with massive rim dings. they were silver $1. one even had scratches.
open rolls of APMEX wrapped coins.
Looks like this is too late, but I was going to say to give the nickels to your child, along with more nickel rolls from the bank at face value, and let your child put them in the folder by date and mintmark.
Mr_Spud
When I was searching nickel rolls in 1964, war nickels were worth about $3 a roll, and it took 10 rolls to buy a BU 1950-D nickel. Today 10 rolls of war nickels would fetch about a roll and a half of 1950-D nickels. Times, popularity and values change!
War nickels were being melted for their silver a few years earlier than other silver coins, and I would guess between the melting and normal attrition more than 90% of them are now gone forever. Some dates might have fewer survivors today than the 1950-D!
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
No harm in opening up that circulated half roll. Had it been a full obw or odw roll of uncirculated coins that would have been a no-no.
Much harder in finding obw rolls these days as too many people have opened them up and attempted to re-seal them. Odw rolls are now impossible to find.