10 Most Popular Nickels to Collect

Nickels remain one of the key denominations that are popular with collectors today as they were generations ago. Among today’s collectors Liberty, Buffalo and Jefferson nickels remain very popular with lots of collectors putting together full date and mintmark sets of those coins, including some who also collect the numerous error varieties. Continue reading to learn about 10 Most Popular Nickels to Collect.

The other type of nickel, Shield nickels, includes some valuable dates, but these coins are primarily collected as type coins with not as many people building sets of them as the other nickels.

What follows are 10 of the most popular nickels collected today of the three key nickel series. Some can be had for modest sums, while others are very expensive.

Liberty nickels

1883 Without Cents Liberty nickel

As most collectors know, there are two versions of the first year of issue coin from 1883. When the first version was introduced, it featured a Roman numeral for the denomination on the reverse and did not specify a value of 5 cents. This led charlatans to gold plate the coin and try to pass it off as a $5 gold piece. And that led the Mint to add “Cents” to the bottom of the “V” on the reverse.

The coins without the cents inscription are worth less than those with it because more examples were saved since the issue was widely reported at the time Average circulated coins run $15

XF coins are worth $19, and MS60 is $60 and MS65 $300, while the top graded MS67s are worth $2,250.

1883 With Cents Liberty nickel

An XF is $40, MS60 $100 and MS65 $450. The finest examples grade MS67 and are worth $4,500.

1912-S Liberty nickel

This is the lowest mintage of the series with only 238,000 coins made that year. Even in Good 4 it is worth $125, and in Very Fine 30 and 40 jumps respectively to $600 and $900. In MS60 it is worth $1800, $3,000 in Gem or MS65 and tops out at a cool $10,000 in the highest known grade of MS66+.

Buffalo Nickels

1913 Type 1 Buffalo nickel

This is another nickel series in which the popular first year coins exist in two versions. The original one featured the bison on the reverse on a mound, but as those coins wore out in commerce the denomination below that often rubbed off eventually.

So the Mint’s Chief Engraver Charles Barber modified the reverse design by replacing the mound with a thinner, straight line and making the area with the denomination recessed (as well as reduing some of the detail on the bison and on the hair of the Indian on the obverse) that struck better and did not wear off like the type 1 coins did.

Mintage and values for the two types are mostly similar except in higher mint state grades where the first type coins are worth more

Type 1 runs $30 circulated, $39 in MS60, $60 in MS63 and $150 in MS65, while the highest graded examples at MS68 command $10,000.

1913 Type 2 Buffalo nickel

These coins are worth $25, $30 and $70 in MS60, 63 and 65. At MS66 and 67 they run just $85 and $250 (compared to $250 and $1,000 for Type 1 coins in those grades), and at MS68 they are $11,000.

1926-S Buffalo nickel

With a mintage of 970,000, this is the longstanding key to the series. It is rare in any grade over VF and is truly rare in mint state. Worth $90 in VF, it jumps to $750 in XF, and $5,000 in MS60. The top grade is MS65, which runs an amazing $125,000 to $250,000 for the very finest examples.

1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo nickel

This is the best-known error variety of the Buffalo series, and probably the most coin of the series other than the two versions of the first-year coin. It is believed to have been created because of excessive polishing of worn reverse dies, and it is expensive in all grades, starting at $450 in Good and $775 in XF. At MS60 it runs $2250, MS63 $5,000 and MS65 $25,000. Top grade MS66s are $135,000.

Jefferson nickels

1943-P 3 Over 2 Jefferson nickel

There are many errors and varieties in this series with this one being perhaps the best known. It was made when a 1942 working die was repunched with a 1943 master die, which caused doubling of the dates.

This coin is worth from $125 in XF to $310 in MS60 and $600 to $950 in MS65 depending on whether it has Full Steps details. The top grade of MS67 FS is worth $5,250.

1964 Special Mint Set Jefferson nickel

This is by far the rarest coin of the series with under 30 known examples, and why they even exist remains unclear. Special Mint Sets were issued from 1965 to 1967 instead of Proof sets, but it is believed that a small number of trial sets were made in 1964. These coins only surfaced 30 years after they were made.

They are worth from $1500 in SP-63 to over $20,000 for examples with Full Steps that grade SP-68.

1971-S No S Proof Jefferson nickel

Proof Jefferson nickels were only made at the San Francisco Mint in 1971, but some coins were struck from dies that were missing the “S” mint mark. The exact number of these coins that exist is unknown, but PCGS has only graded about 300 of them.

They are worth almost $1,000 in Proof 63-65 with examples that have a cameo contrast worth a bit more. In the top grade of Proof 69 with deep cameo they are worth $3,350.