The Jefferson Nickel isn’t well known for fielding major rarities, but there are some dates that collectors pursue with zeal. And one of the lower mintages of the series is found with the 1955 Jefferson Nickel struck at the Philadelphia Mint. The 1955 Jefferson Nickel had a mintage of only 7,888,000 pieces, making it one of the scarcest regular issues in the series. There’s a good half dozen issues with smaller mintages, including the 1939-D and 1950-D key dates. But the 1955 Jefferson Nickel largely flies under-the-radar as a better date that eludes many collectors in the higher grades.
A mild recession in 1953-1954 led to smaller outputs of some coinage in the mid-1950s, and the Jefferson Nickel saw those repercussions. The need for coinage was strong out West, prompting the Denver Mint to produce 74,464,100 strikes – a respectable showing. However, demand for Jefferson Nickels back East was such that the Philadelphia Mint needed to produce fewer than 8 million five-cent coins.
Collectors realized early on that the 1955 Philly Jefferson Nickel was scarce – in fact, PCGS estimates 6,250,000 – nearly 80% of the original output – still survives, representing an unusually large percentage of extant population. Scarce, late-date coins such as the 1955 Jefferson Nickel helped drive the uncirculated roll craze of the early 1960s, when countless collectors around the United States purchased rolls of “rare” modern coins with the hopes of striking it big in the future.
As for the 1955 Jefferson Nickel, circulated specimens carry nominal premiums over face value, but uncirculated specimens are a different story. Examples in MS63 sell for around $7 apiece while MS65 examples go for around $25 each. Specimens with Full Steps (FS) designation are much scarcer and thus garner significantly higher prices. The 1955 Jefferson Nickel in MS65FS goes for some $500, while the tiny handful of MS67FS specimens each fetch around $8,000.