V. Z. writes: I’ve just started collecting coins (nickels, in particular) and have noticed that there were approximately 3 billion (!!) nickels produced in 1964, more than any other year. Why is that?

The year 1964 was the last year of silver coin production. Silver was rising in price and many people hoarded silver coins hoping they would be worth more than their face value. They were right but many erroneously thought that nickels contained silver too and hoarded them along with dimes, quarters and half-dollars.

The mint was given permission by Congress (Act of 9/3/1964) to strike nickels in 1965 with the 1964 date to help alleviate the coin shortage that had developed, so the reason for the huge mintage.



