Canadian Nickel Coins to Look For

You can hoard as many or as little nickels as you like

When coin roll hunting through your box of nickels, there are a certain number of coins that you will want to consider keeping for their metal value and numismatic value. Here we will lay out which coins offer the greatest value because of their metal content (made out of nickel) and which coins may be worth keeping for their numismatic value. As you will learn, Canadian nickels before a certain date are more valuable than their American counterparts because they are made out of nickel (99.9%). Do not be surprised if you find older and more rare nickels in your box. We have been sorting through nickels for the last few months and often find nickels that are quite rare. Some of these nickels are almost 100 years old! Please note that this article covers the basic nickels that you will be looking for and is a great way to start for anyone looking to get into coin roll hunting for these coins.

So which Canadian nickels should you keep when coin roll hunting? Most coin roll hunters in Canada will sort through boxes of nickels looking for coins that were minted before 1982. These are the coins that you will most likely have the best success of finding. Make sure you hoard all of these pre-1982 nickels when coin roll hunting since they are made of 99.9% nickel! This means your pre-1982 nickels worth five cents in face value are actually worth more than five cents for their metal content. The number of these pre-1982 nickels that you will find in each box will vary. We have had boxes that consisted of 12% of the 99.9% nickels. On the other hand, we have also had boxes with less than 1%, sometimes zero. Coin roll hunting is all about volume so do not get frustrated. Your consistency should pay off. Please note that most of these 99.9% nickels that you find will be from the years 1963 to 1981, so be sure to keep an eye out for these dates.

Other Canadian nickels that you will want to sort through when coin roll hunting are nickels that are 12-sided. We find far fewer of these coins when compared to the 99.9% rounded nickel coins, but still find at least a couple in each box on average. Consider keeping these coins separate from your larger 99.9% nickel hoard because of their numismatic value. From 1955 until 1962, these 12-sided nickels were made out of 99.9% nickel. As well, all 12-sided nickels minted in the years ranging from 1946 to 1951 were also made of 99.9% nickel.

You might be wondering about the years from 1951-1954. These 12-sided nickels are not made of nickel, but are actually composed of chrome-plated steel. This is also true for Canadian nickels that were minted from 1944 until 1945 (Victory Nickels). They are also 12-sided coins and have a composition of chrome-plated steel. Does this mean that when you find these coins you should just reroll them and return them back to the bank since they do not hold a tremendous amount of metal value? No, these coins should be kept as well for their numismatic value. Coin roll hunting is not just about metal value, but value in general. We keep all of these 12-sided coins separate from our large 99.9% nickel hoard in smaller containers. This smaller hoard of 12-sided coins is growing quite quickly.

There are many varieties of Canadian nickels

Lastly, you may be lucky enough to also find Canadian nickels between the years 1922 and 1942. Nickels minted from 1922 to 1936 will have a portrait of King George V on the back of them. These nickels are much more rare and are difficult to come by. In our months of coin roll hunting we have only found a handful of these coins, and all of them came from one roll. These nickels are made out of 99.9% nickel and are not 12-sided, but are round. Strongly consider keeping these nickels separate from your 99.9% nickel hoard since their numismatic value outweighs their metal value. We have our King George V nickels stored separately, which were minted between 1937 and 1952, and you will probably want to do the same.

For now, this might sound confusing, but don’t make it harder then it has to be. Write down these dates so you have them beside you when you are coin roll hunting in the beginning. You will learn quickly. Be sure to consider keeping your 12-sided nickels separate from your larger 99.9% nickel hoard, and those rare nickels that hold numismatic value.