The first series of buffalo nickels also had this problem but it was the word “five cents” that wore off. The source of this problem was that the value was placed on a raised area just below the bison on the tail side of the coin. This was seen and corrected within the first year of its minting by the chief engraver Charles E. Barber. But there was an oversight and the date was not corrected to prevent the same problematic wear.

 The dateless nickels were mostly made before 1926. The minting of the buffalo nickel began in 1913 and ended in 1938. Most of these coins were removed from circulation in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is said that 1 in 25,000 nickels in circulation today is still a buffalo nickel.

For coin collecting purposes, the dateless buffalo coin is not worth more than 5 to 20 cents, because of the condition of the coins. If you own a dateless nickel, an experiment can be done to verify if what you have is an authentic dateless buffalo coin. By placing a drop of ferric chloride or other weak acid on the dated area, the date may be revealed. In many coin collecting stores it goes by the trade name of “Nic-a-Date”. After this is used, most coin collectors consider the coin valueless because of the modification that was done to the coin.

But if you own dateless Buffalo Nickels, the choice is yours. The difference between 5 cents and no cents is not enough to worry about.

1938 Nickel

The 1938 nickel was minted at the Philadelphia Mint, Denver Mint and the San Franscisco Mint.  The Philadelphia Mint struck 19,496,000 1938 nickels.  The Denver Mint struck 5,376,00 1938-D nickels.  The San Francisco Mint struck 4,105,00 1938-S nickels.  Only the Philadelphia mint produced proof nickels in 1938.  Only 19,365 proof nickels were minted that year.

In looking at the 1938 nickel value, it seems tha Mint State nickels are not hard to find from any of these mintmarks.  The real issue with the 1938 nickel is finding a sharply struck 1938 nickel.  As with most Jefferson nickels, the real nickel value comes from finding a 1938 nickel with 5 Full Steps.  According to A Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels, one out of twenty coins in the Mint State 65 qualtiy or higher will have 5 Full Steps.  So that is my mission.  I want a 5 Full Step 1938 nickel.

Do you have any advice that you can give me to help me find my 5 Full Step 1938 nickel?  I would love to hear your advice for buy this Jefferson nickel and any other us coins.

I like the idea of beginning my nickel collection with the 1938 nickel.  1938 is the first date that the Jefferson nickel was minted.  Since this is the first year that the Jefferson nickel was minted, I believe that this is a good place to start my collection.

I originally thought about working backwards.  Maybe starting with a 2008 jefferson nickel, then buying the 2005 Jefferson Ocean in View, etc.  However, I think that my nickel type set collection needs to start the first Jefferson nickels, 1938.

How do you decide which coins to buy?  What is your favorite Jefferson nickel?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you would like to read my other articles about my U.S. Nickel type set collection, here are the other articles in this series.

• US Nickel Type Set Collection

• U.S. Nickel Type Set

• 1950-D Jefferson Nickel – A Key Date?

As I have been working on putting together a list of key date coins, I thought that the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel fit this bill.  If you look at the mintage numbers for this coin, it only has slightly over 2.6 million coins.  This is the lowest mintage for any Jefferson Nickel.

However, when I read Scott Travers’ Top 88 Coins to Buy and Sell: 44 Winners and 44 Losers, I was surprised to see him state that this coin is over priced.  Scott’s analysis has taught me an important lesson.  You can’t just look at mintage numbers when investing in coins.  You have to look at the history of the coin.  According to Scott Travers, when this coin was being struck, coin collectors realized that the mintage numbers were low.  Therefore, they started to hoard this coin.  So, while the mintage numbers are low for the 1950-D Jefferson nickel, the number of saved coins is higher than other Jefferson nickels.

This is an important lesson for coin collectors.  Don’t just make your buying decision based off of  mintage numbers.  Research more about your coins.  This research will help you to make good buying decisions and build a more valuable coin collection.  Additionally, this research is the fun part of coin collecting.

So is the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel a key date for this US nickel type?  Yes, and no.  I will list it as a key date because of its low mintage number, but you have to make sure that you don’t over pay for it.

If you would like to read my other articles about my U.S. Nickel type set collection, here are the other articles in this series.

• US Nickel Type Set Collection

• U.S. Nickel Type Set

A U.S. nickel type set collection is comprised of 14 types of us nickel coins.  The 14 types of U.S. nickel type set coints are as follows:

1866 – 1867 Shield With Rays
1867 – 1883 Shield Without Rays
1883 Liberty Head Without CENTS
1883 – 1913 Liberty Head with CENTS
1913 Buffalo Type I
1913 – 1938 Buffalo Type II
1938 – 1965 Jefferson, regular alloy, without initials
1942 – 1945 Jefferson, silver alloy
1966 – 2003 Jefferson, regular alloy, with designer’s initials (FS)
2004 Jefferson Keelboat
2004 Jefferson Indian Peace Medal
2005 Jefferson Bison
2005 Jefferson Ocean in View
2006 New Jefferson portrait, with restyled Monticello on the reverse

I am looking forward to starting my U.S. nickel type set.  In a follow up post, I will discuss which of these US coins will be my first coin that I purchase.  So, if you are interested in my us nickel coin collection, please subscribe to my us coin blog.

1913 Buffalo Nickel Obverse

I thought that this would be a fun way to kick off this blog, but it took me a while to decide which type of coin to start collecting first.  But, after reading a ton of information about the different coin types, I decided that my first type set would be a nickel type set collection.

Why did I decide on collecting a U.S. nickel type set collection?

I have been reading a ton of books about coin collecting.  In doing my research, I have been drawn to James Earle Fraser’s buffalo nickel coin.   I don’t think that I am alone in my love of the Fraser buffalo nickel design.  It is a favorite among coin collectors.

Another factor in my choice of collecting a U.S. nickel type set is price.  I would love to be able to afford a U.S. gold coin or U.S. silver dollar type set collection, but unfortunately my budget won’t allow it.  On the other hand, a nickel type set collection is much more affordable.

So, I hope that you will enjoy my journey of collecting a nickel type set.  For those nusimatists out there that would like to provide me with some advice as I begin my collection, please leave your advice in the comments below.  Additionally, you can contact me on my contact form above.