My brother had some nickels. The paper i found with them say they are war-nickels. What i know about them (according to the paper my brother kept with these coins): -They contain silver -Made between 1942 and 1945 (WW2) -There are 11 coins needed to complete the set. The coins he all ready had are: 2 coins of 1942 1 coin of 1943 1 coin of 1944 the 2 coins of 1942 are the same, there is only a letter above the building on the and with 1 coin it is the letter P, and the other has the letter S Because there are only 11 coins needed to complete this collection, i think that would be a good start for me. But what do i need to look for, and where can i find the remaining 7? Thank you Regards Herman
Herman, Welcome to CoinTalk. A complete set of War Nickels includes: 1942 P & S 1943 P, D & S 1944 P, D & S 1945 P, D & S The nickels with the 'P' mintmark were struck at the Philadelphia Mint. The ones with a 'D' mintmark were struck at the Denver Mint and the ones with the 'S' mintmark were struck at the San Francisco Mint. You should be able to find the coins that you need at your local coin shop, at a coin show or on eBay. None of them are particularly expensive (except in higher grades). Good luck completing the set.
Thank you for the explanation. So the coins he had from 1942 are P & S and they are not as i thought the same because of that deference in the letter? I think i will have to find them on eBay, i know my brother did buy coins from there. Coin-shows here in Belgium are as far as i know not something that is happening on a regular base. Regards Herman
Hi, Herman. I hope you and the family are feeling better. I'm glad to see you picking up where your brother left off. You've been entrusted with a great legacy. Great to have you here as a regular.
Feeling better is a big word, but we are trying to give it a place in our lives. It is not always easy though, but i know what my brother would have said about it: life goes on. He left a void in our lives, but i know how passionate he was about his collection, so i think trying to maintain his collection is what he wanted.
Hi Herman. Glad to see you on here under your name. You are amazing to want to continue this, and I think that you will find things about coins you never dreamed. Everyone finds their own likings about coins. The War Nickels are a good short series to work. They are not expensive and have most of their value only based on the silver content. The coins were the standard Jefferson Nickels, but changed to a composition that included 35% silver and also magnesium so that nickel could be saved for wartime uses. The mint decided to put a large mintmark (P, D, or S) on the reverse above the memorial, with the idea that after the war, when the series went back to normal metal composition, they could be identified easily and pulled from circulation. But I don't know that any real effort was made to pull them from circulation. Later on, as I understand it, there were a number of these melted for the silver content. But I don't know how many. Nowadays, here in the US, they do sometimes show up in circulation, but not that many. Many people do take a while to complete a set they are doing, even if it isn't a large one, unless they are all easily found. I have a collection of them from circulation finds, and mine is not complete.
From what I know, Koen has the following: 1942 S, 1942 P and 1943 P as seen here http://www.cointalk.com/t202756/ I am however, sending some I had ready to send before the accident. That should cover some of it. What I am sending is 1943-D&S, 1944-P, 1945-PDS So Koen has all of 1942 and 43 now. Depending on what 44 is already in there, that is the year he needs to finish. Any takers?
I will try to take a picture of the ones he had, i am sure you know more about them than i do. Thank you for the information that you gave about these coins. Cazkaboom, how much do they cost the ones you have? Please let me know and i will make arrangements for the payment. Regards Herman
All the information a man can find about a "simple" set of coins is overwhelming. The war nickel set is starting to get stuck on me, very interesting to read about. I am starting to see why my brother liked coins so much. Cazkaboom, i would like to buy the coins you are talking about. Please let me know how to make arrangements for it. Thank you Regards Herman
That would be very nice of you. I still am trying to figure out how to take a nice picture of the war-nickels that are already in the collection.
I still was not able to make a descend picture of them. These are the 4 War-Nickels in the collection. One is 1943 with mintmark P One is 1942 with mintmark P One is 1942 with mintmark S One is 1944 with mintmark P I will try to make good pictures soon, but it is so hard to get them. Regards Herman
I'll have to check, but I think I have the 44 D & S. If I do I will PM you and send them your way in your brother's memory. I know what it's like, I lost my brother in '94 and it's not easy. My best to you and your family.
Thank you Pacecar, Verry nice of you. And thank you all again ( i can not say it enough) for helping me to keep the collection alive. Regards Herman
Thanks to the coins i have received from all of you, the collection of the War-nickels is complete. I never have thought that it would be completed so fast. I will try to take pictures of them, but it is not easy to do so. Thank you all for the help to complete this collection. Now i have to find another series that i can try to complete. I wanted to start with the war-nickel series because it had not so much coins in it. Again thank you all Regards Herman
All the war-nickels are now placed in holders. To "learn" something more about them, and for future reference for Koen's kids when they get them i have made a document with a bit of info about them. is this info about them correct?: Regards Herman
