worn toy nickel is worth a few dollars?

my mom gave me a box of stuff out of the junk drawer last weekend to go through and sort out. there was like always a handful of loose change in there haha. well my friend kinda collects coins and i asked him if any were good to keep or to just spend them? and he said one worn nickel was worth a few dollars. i thought surprised anyone would want worn out coins but he said all worn nickels are worth a few dollars. after looking at it carefully i am confused because it is not even real. is is clearly marked as play money woth a big "p" from whatever game or toy it came from i guess and just looks completely different from a real nickel so i know it's not real. its a different color and just looks wrong somehow. probably not even made from nickel metal haha. but he keeps insisting it is worth something. i decided to find coin people online to get another opinion and prove i am right and it is fake to him haha. can you guys tell me what game it is from or anything? here is a pictures i guess since it said to post a picture.

 

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This is a Jefferson War Nickel dated 1945-P The P is the mintmark, used to distinguish it from other circulating nickels. This nickel is 35% silver and is worth $1.50 in silver.
The war nickels were a desperate attempt to get more copper and nickel into the war effort so they substituted some of the metal for silver and magneese. These were dated 1942-945. In 1942, the mints produced both the nickel, and silver nickel composition coins. All distinguished with a P, D, or S. But there was never a 1942-D war nickel produced. Hope this helps.

~Cannyn

 

Oh, and I think you might have lost the bet

And :welcome: to cointalk.

 

that is so strange thank you haha. guess i lose the bet. i dunno if i should tell him though because he will laugh at me haha. but if it is 1945 why does it say 1946?

 

If that is a 1946, and it is real, GO have your coin shop check it out because it could be worth $$$thousands, I just thought it looked like a 45

And if it is a legitimate coin, you wouldn't have to worry about losing a tiny wager with your riches after you sell it.

 

oh! i feel like an idiot - i just realized he was maybe saying war and i heard worn haha.

 

here is a more clearer picture of the date. yeah it says 1946. why would you think its worth so much? haha to me its worth 5 cents i don't do the coins thing. i will maybe give it to my friend if it is so rarer and hard to get. he might need it for his collection? i will ask if he has one yet.

 

No silver nickels were supposed to be made in 1946, but a few have surfaced. Just like the 1943 copper cent, the nickel was most likely a Minting error where they put in a wrong (Left over?) planchet, using this silver alloy.

 

Actually, wouldn't this be a mule, or whatever? The P mintmark wasn't on the planchet itself, but on the dies. So this would have to have been struck with a 1946 Obverse die and a 1942-45 Reverse die. I would suspect it's a fake, personally, similar to all the 1944 no mint mark nickels. And there is no guarantee that it's a silver planchet, even if it was real.

My gut reaction is it's a counterfeit. Worthless and illegal to own. But of course, it's impossible for me to actually say, as I am no expert... lol!

 

Maybe it's a Hennings nickel.........

 

I am not sure, I gotta do some research if they used the 1945 reverse dies on the 1946 war nickels, all I know is that a few exist.

 

nah. Henning never made mistakes like that.

Really?

I never heard that

 

Lol. sarcasm?

 

Any chance of better pictures??

 

Very likely actually. He did dump 200,000 into the Copper Creek, only 14k of them were recovered. Also it's estimated that 100k of his counterfeit nickels reached circulation. If it is the counterfeit, it could draw a premium but yet is still illegal to own.

 

According to one website:

So it's likely this could be a real 1946 Wartime error coin, but the odds are actually against it. I can't find anything on any 1946 with the P mintmark like this one has. All the errors known were made on leftover blanks, not with leftover dies.

JulieR, I say take this coin to a local dealer to have it inspected. Looks like you haven't lost the bet yet, if it's proven counterfeit or fake that is but I hope you have your fingers crossed in finding a real error coin. That means your $1.50 in value just a little more valuable, which I don't think you'd mind losing the bet in that case.

 

Actually, you're wrong on both counts. It's worth a few dollars (or more) if counterfeit, and perfectly legal to own.

 

Can you point out where in the United States law that owning a counterfeit coin or currency is legal? Because from my understanding, if you know it's counterfeit and it's been proven it's counterfeit, by Federal Law it is illegal to own or possess it.

Although possessing a counterfeit isn't a serious crime, trying to pass it as real (if you know it's not real) is when your world turns nasty if caught.

 

The key to the law is the phrase "with intent to defraud". Mere possession is NOT illegal, however, passing or selling it as genuine is. In the case of Henning nickels, they are extremely collectible, and worth more than a few bucks if you can find them. Here's a reference thread:

http://www.cointalk.com/t64119/

 

And according to the Secret Service, if you possess a counterfeit note or coin, you are instructed to:

"Surrender the note or coin only to a properly identified police officer or a U.S. Secret Service special agent."

So sure, you can keep it and you're not technically committing any crime by possessing it, just don't tell anyone cause if the Secret Service were to find out and if they cared enough to spend the resources, they can come take it away at anytime. That tells me, no, they're not fully legal to own because the Secret Service is suppose to destroy counterfeits. I doubt they're gonna spend the time on single instances or low denominated coins or notes, only unless they're being used as real currency.