War Nickels Are All Over The Place With VDI Numbers

[tabman]

I have a 1943 War Nickel that shows a VDI number of 59 (modern coke pull tab) and a 1944 War Nickel that shows a VDI number of 72 ( almost zinc penny). A nickel on my G2 has a VDI number of 57/58. Does anyone know what causes War Nickels to have that much difference in VDI numbers? Both nickels are in the same condition. I'm finding lots of them with my Vaquero, because I dig most anything that's above the lower foil range.

tabman

 

[ironsight]

I found some that ring in as a typical Jefferson or Buffalo nickels and others that were all over the map.
I'll take a wild a$$ guess and say it might be that during the war, with some they might of scrimped or increased the silver/copper/manganese ratio or the alloy varied depending on the immediate supply of metals available or in demand for the war effort. It also could be that with such a relatively small percentage of silver, some just corroded/tarnished differently dependant on the soil.
The war nickels switched over to the silver alloy sometime in '42. Some minted in '42 might have the old copper/nickel alloy.

Interesting is that war nickels had no nickel in them.

 

[Old California]

This has been brought up a few times on various forums, And is a good question.

Here's my personal opinion, from which had the same mysterious silver nickel readings as you're having. I feel over the test of time, Harsh elements and such the manganese breaks down causing buried silver nickels to ID different. Normally, The variance is higher and once on a rare silver nickel find the silver war nickel came in lower. From my understanding, Manganese was only used in the silver war nickel not of any other type.

That's my take on the Silver war nickel mystery, Depending on the elements, Manganese breaks down causing buried silver nickels to ID different.

Paul (Ca)

 

[Rick(ND)]

That is my understanding as to why in some area the war nickles will read higher. I had a guy tell me he had a war nickle that read like a zinc penny with his Sovereign, in fact in one week he got 2 of them which we never see here in ND. I had him send it to me and I checked it with different detectors and sure enough it read higher. I posted this on a couple of forum as I have never seen this before and was told that some ground conditions would leach out some of the Manganese and the nickle will read like a zinc penny.
Now on my Sovereign with the 180 digital meter most war nickles will read 144-145 which is where nickles will read, but once in a while the war nickles will read up to 151 which is where round pull tabs read. With my Sovereign nickles have a different tone, more fuller than the round pull tab so when I get that tone and it reads 150-151 I know it is a war nickle even though very few of them read like this as most war nickles read 144-145.

Rick

 

[foreign object]

I have three or four dug with different machines. I need to check them with just one detector and see what they read.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

I find the same thing with these war nickels - had one ID like a zinc penny earlier this year, while others IDed around the "nickel" range, while a couple others registered in the "foil" range. I think Paul is correct - the Mn component of these coins may be the culprit, since copper was more in demand during WW2 I would think it would be controlled more closely.

Another theory is the "not all war nickels and Wheats are created equally", since Wheats tend to register as pulltabs at times, especially the old ones. I would guess that the planchet material varied a little bit causing the discrepancy we see today.

 

[JimGilmore]

a question ON WAR nickels......
Are You refering to the 1943 nickels with a MINT mark on them....
There was a post someplace about a guy whom was arrested as having made some number of conterfit nickles back in the day and was caught because he had forgotten the mint mark. I also have never found a silver war nickel with out a mint mark. I may be wrong but my understanding is that true war nickels have a mint mark.
While the real test would be to first verify that the nickels in question are silver by a test kit and then checking the reading you get.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I get the same thing with the Sovereign GT. i found a war nickel that sounded like a silver. Was surprised when the war nickel came out of the ground. I got to thinking about the tones that I got and took some war nickels that I had collected many years ago and checked them with the GT. Some of them were in the Nickel range and some of them were in the Zinc penny range. They also registered in those ranges on the meter that I have on my GT. I suspect that the metal content varied from year to year during the war.