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I'm Excited:

Nancy-IL

Nancy-IL

Well-known member
I found my third silver war nickel today. When I got it out of the ground I was dissapointed when I saw the Jefferson face. As I usually do, I scrape the dirt off to see the date. When I did, it was a bright silverish color. :bouncy: I looked at the date (1944) and I was tickled to death! :wiggle: Here's my finds for the day and I don't think you want to ask Larry about his finds. :blowup: I jhave to say I had a very good time. Thanks for looking and HH to all, Nancy
[attachment 139721 CIMG5291.jpg]
 
Great haul Nancy, I recently got a war nickel.......too bad it was out of the cash register at work LOLOLOL.
 
1945 was the last year for the War Nickel. HH, Nancy
 
I got curious and looked this up on the internet and found this. Very interesting stuff.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_they_stop_making_silver_nickels

[Improve] Answer
I assume you are referring to the so-called "war nickels" and not half-dimes. From 1866 to 1942 all nickels were made of copper-nickel alloy. Nickel was a strategic metal during WW2, so to reduce its use in coinage the composition of the 5-cent piece was changed in mid-1942 from to an alloy of silver, copper, and manganese. Only about 1/3 of the alloy was silver so technically there has never been a "silver nickel".

Some 1942 nickels were struck in the old composition and some in the silver alloy. From 1943 to 1945 the silver alloy was used for all nickels. Normal composition was resumed at the start of 1946 and continues to today.

The silver alloy coins bear a large mint mark above Monticello's dome, instead of a small mark to the side. The letter "P" was used for Philadelphia issues for the first time on any coin.

When new, the coins looked very similar to their copper-nickel cousins, unlike the zinc-coated steel cents issued in 1943 that were often confused with dimes. However after a small amount of wear the silver and manganese components tarnished severely and the coins turned an unpleasant dark gray.

Silver "War" nickels were produced by the United States from mid-1942* through 1945. The coins were manufactured from 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. This allowed the saved nickel metal to be shifted to industrial production of miltary supplies during World War II.

"Nickle"
Be careful of this common misspelling. The metal and the coin are NICKEL. A "nickle" is actually a small European bird (!)

Katz:detecting:
 
Nancy,,,,,do me a favor.Take a current nickel and your war nickel and compare the VDI each one gives off. Is there a difference? I think others might like to read your finding too.......:) Tom
 
Very nice finds Nancy congrats on the third war nickel very good . I thought I had got my third one in three months on Tuesday but it turned out to be a 1946 instead so close but no cigar . Congrats




Harold
 
Thanks Harold. Ironically, I've been metal detecting only 10 yrs, but I have had the best teacher. I get excited about the nickels. Not just the silver ones, but all nickels. Take care and HH, Nancy
 
I like the nickels also Nancy , I have a spot around the swimming pool in our main city park where I just got 13 nickels last Tuesday and that made about 85 nickels I dug there since last fall and very few other coins . Bad part was none were older than 1943. I got 8 more across the road from the pool on Friday and earlier I found my first war nickel on that side of the park . I can only guess the guys that detected that park before me had discriminated the nickels and pull tabs out and just dug the other clad and silver cause not finding much of ether in that part of the park . I saw one older guy Friday already detecting before I got there and he was only picking up surface coins cause he was walking really fast and wasn't getting down to dig much .. We just had a big craft fair in that park last weekend and there was four other people detecting in there on the following Monday I got about a dollar out of one small area I had staked out but it wasn't fresh had to dig it all . OK anyway good job .


Harold
 
When Larry gets back, I'll see what exactly they read. My guess would be 18 on the regular nickel and mid 30's with the silver nickel. We'll see........HH, Nancy
 
It sounds like you've got a lot of fellow metal detectors in your area and yes, they have the nickels and pull-tabs notched out. That means they're not finding any gold rings either ;) We'll be waiting to see that gold ring you pull out of the ground soon. Congratulations on your first war nickel. :clapping: They're hard to find. Rob (rcasio44) found 7 war nickels when we were hunting a Boy Scout Camp last Spring. Now that was something to see! I think I was more tickled than he was. Our metal detecting club spent the weekend camping and detecting and we invited him to join us. In fact that's the first time we met Rob and his wife and what a great start to a wonderful friendship. Just doesn't get much better than that. HH and enjoy!
 
Thanks, that was very interesting Katz about the history of the War nickle! BUT what is the value of silver War nickles? I know the condition of any coin is everything in value.
 
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