Silver Nickel Definition

History

• When the United States entered World War II in 1941, the demand for nickel skyrocketed, as it was needed in the production of military supplies. On March 27, 1942, Congress passed an act changing the composition of the Jefferson nickel to eliminate nickel and produce it with silver and manganese instead. These wartime nickels were produced by the United States Mint from October 1942 through December 1945.

Composition

• The silver nickels produced during World War II are made of 35 percent silver, 56 percent copper, and 9 percent manganese. The weight of the silver content in a wartime nickel is about 1.75 grams, or 0.062 ounces of silver. The manganese content gives silver nickels a darker look than nonsilver nickels.

Design and Mint Mark

• The wartime nickel has mostly the same design as its predecessor, the Jefferson nickel that the United States Mint had been producing since 1938. The coin features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson on one side and Monticello, Jefferson's home, on the reverse.

  The main difference in the wartime nickel is the large mint mark on the reverse of the coin, above Monticello's dome. A war nickel will have either a P, D or S in this location on the coin, instead of to the right of Monticello near the rim. This shows whether it was minted in Philadelphia, Denver or San Francisco. The wartime nickel is the first United States coin to feature a P mint mark, as previous Philadelphia-minted coins had no mint mark on them.

Mintage

• The United States Mint minted no fewer than 15 million of any wartime nickel at any mint location, with the exception of the 1942 nickel at the Denver Mint, where none were minted. The rarest of the wartime nickels is the 1943-D nickel, as 15,294,000 were minted. The most common wartime nickel is the 1943-P, with more than 271 million made.

Value

• Because there are no key dates in a silver nickel collection, the value of circulated silver nickels are generally only that of silver content. Wartime nickels will always be at least worth 0.062 times the current spot price of silver. Uncirculated and higher grade wartime nickels can be worth more than silver value based on their condition.