It's definitely an XF at the very least. All the steps on Monticello is worn off which would disclude it from a the Mint State categories.
1960: AU, not an unusual thing to find, but good to hold on to. 1943: VG to F, quite unusual to find; even rarer than the pre-war nickels.
Not necessarily, plenty of nickels with no steps but are in uncirculated condition. I pull these from older uncirculated mint sets all the time. You can easily find TGP graded MS6X+ without any steps. As for the coin itself, looks like a lot of wear on obverse, particularly Jeffersons head and looks to be a slight wear on the reverse. XF to a low AU I'd say.
The war nickel has been harshly cleaned, almost to the point it looks damaged. No grade in my opinion, worth melt value.
Agreed and even if not cleaned it would only be a VG the inside right pillar needs to be worn but visible to be an F those marks are scratches not the pillar, the first one is probably VF from the pics I just don't see enough definition to the hair lines coin in hand with defined hair lines then it's bumped to XF.