# I Found A 1940 Nickel In My Change Purse! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 26, 2022, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-1940-nickel-in-my-change-purse/965109 "2022-05-26T00:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-1940-nickel-in-my-change-purse/965109/41 "2022-05-31T14:46:35Z")
I had a few nice finds when I was collecting. One of them was several 5 Franc coins that were issued in 1939-1941 in colonial Algeria. I found them in a street market in Bamako, Mali. They were in a clay bowl and covered with dust, but when I wiped the dust off, they were clearly nearly mint. The vendor haggled and sold all of them to me for a few dollars. I dragged out my World Coins book when I got home and was startled to see that they were valued at about $30-$40 each. I sold most of them on eBay. Another find was from my next door neighbor in Alaska. I was telling her that the market for silver coins online was pretty brisk and she mentioned that she had some silver coins that she’d like me to sell. So I went over the next day and she handed me three bank bags full of coins, which surprised me. I dumped out the first bag and found it full of 1964 Kennedy silver in nearly mint condition. The second bag was full of silver Franklin half-dollars, in varying conditions, but with some really nice examples. The third bag was full of Liberty half dollars, a lot of which were very worn, but the silver content was there of course. I ended up selling most all of them for her at about $40/roll, and bought some of the better exemplars for my own collection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-1940-nickel-in-my-change-purse/965109.md?page=2)