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http://www.gizex.com/antiques/acnews/news010.html
This was an oldie, written for Prodigy when I was still an External there on the antiques and collecting forum. (where this BB start when Greg thought everyone should have access not just Prodigy members)
Later it went from Prodigy Forums to Prodigy Internet. After some time, AT&T bought Prodigy, then SBC bought AT&T and then they closed the forums. That was sure some good times. Near the end we were given our content for the areas we managed. I put that up on one of my personal sites. And there it's been a true "cobweb" site, for years. 
Tracey Oswald was kind enough to tell me, the images were missing. Longish story but the links are still pointing to Prodigy in some cases, the files that I saved have wrong case for the filenames, some were not there and lost. Thanks Tracey I updated the page, which is at the top of this message.
I used to go to Elko on the flights. Aside from everything else, I'd play the nickel slots, save everything that fell into the bucket. Then go up and watch TV while I sorted through the coins. This started as a challenge one year where my friend Dan said we should search nickels and the one who found the most would get a free dinner (at the Red Lion Buffet, we're both chiselers) So I bought two sets of new Whitman coin books, 1 and 2 and we were off. (ps I won and the prime rib buffet was better than ever)
That's what got me started collection nickels from circulation. I don't bother with wheat cents, they are all picked through and hoarded. I mean yes I'll drop one into the jar, then I take them to the coin shop and cash them in. I stopped looking for silver dimes and quarters in 1968, they vanished as fast as the new ones were issued. For history the US Mint announced in that 1965 that we were changing to clad coins. I could find loads of dimes through 1966 and into 1867 then working in a college book store by 1968, I rarely saw any silver coming into the register. I'd buy any that I found.
Which brings this back around to nickels, which aside from a dubious melt value and it's illegal to melt them anyway, are still pretty much worth just 5 cents.The catch is, collecting them can be cheap fun and there is the possibility of finding something unusual, or a silver War Nickel. For people who are old enough, when I was a kid we still got Indian Head cents and Buffalo nickels in change. Sometimes an old worn out Standing Liberty quarter. We collected pennies - yes I know cents - from circulation and pushed them into a coin book.
Those days are not over. Kids (and big kids...) can still find and collect nickels in circulation.
There you go the whole story of collecting from circulation and why nickels are the last. The new mint issues are just a waste of time, people buy them by the roll. State quarters, HA! I bought a book of dollars, SBA and the new ones, for under face value, state quarters run about the same. The only exception is errors and what chance does anyone have of find one of those? Also if anyone wants to buy a box of half dollars and search those, there's still silver to be found. I went through $1000 worth a few years ago and found a few silver half dollars and some Kennedy's which are 40% silver.
Now I buy books of nickels, sometimes complete, at the auctions, I search through and update my master collection for best quality. Then the rest go into the piggy bank and to the coin counter at the bank. I'm having fun and feeding the hobby because all those old nickels are going back into circulation. Great Fun!
So where the article says I'm missing 18 coins, that's only for the book that I limit to actually found in circulation, or searching mint boxes or rolls. If I wanted a complete collection, I have a few. I haven't bought a box of nickels in six years, maybe I should. 
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