The United States Nickel (five cents) coin is our longest running coin whose composition today is the same as when the coin was first minted in 1866. In fact, the composition of 25% nickel and 75% copper was constant except for the Second World War (1942-1945) issues which were produced with a composition of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% mangnanese. Note: There was another constant: The United States Nickel always weighed five grams including the WWII 35% silver ones. Does anyone know of any other coin minted in 2007, American or other country, whose composition and/or weight has remained constant for a longer period than THE U.S.A. nickel? It would be interesting to know. Clinker
Umm....Clinker...if that is true the WII issues have more silver in them (by weight) than a WII quarter........
Jerome,those Warnicks,as those .350 fine silver 5c. coins are commonly known as,have a very distinctive yellowish colour.That is how you can tell,apart from looking at the huge mintmarks above Monticello on the reverse. Aidan.
Mike,I was wondering the same thing.I am always finding at least 1 Warnick every time my boss buys in a bulk lot of U.S. coins,especially the 1c. Lincolns & 5c. Jeffersons. Aidan.
That is absolutely true. The war nickels have more silver per dollar face value than any other US circulating coinage. The early silver dolars (<1935) contain 0.77344 oz. 20 war nickels contain 1.1252 oz. of silver.
I can think of 2 of the top of my head - the Maria Theresa thaler, 259 yrs if memory serves. The Netherlands ducat, 421 years.
To GDJMSP You are right on both coins....The big difference is 2007 U.S.A. nickels are not only minted for collectors in mint sets and proof sets, but,also, as general circulation coins while the Maria Theresa Thalers are struck by The Vienna Mint for collectors only and the Netherlands Ducat is struck as a "trade" coin, a bullion coin, and a collectors coin. Clinker
As usual this is interesting and just one of the many things I didn't know. Now was anyone here around when they first started those coins to verify that?
WOW clinker. You got me running to my Red Book on that one. I would have sworn that the old Liberty Head and Indian Head Nickels were loaded with Silver or something that made them wear out like they do. Especially the old Liberty Head ones. They are always looking like someone dragged them down a street. but your right as usual.
The composition of the U.S. 5c. nickels are no longer pure nickel.They are in fact,cupro-nickel.I don't know when the change from nickel to cupronickel occurred,but I can tell you that Canada stopped issuing nickel 5c. coins in around 1982 & started issuing cupro-nickel 5c. coins. Aidan.
Aidan - when did the US ever issue pure nickel coins? I'm admittedly not an expert on US coinage, but my Red Book says that every US nickel from 1866 to the present (except the 1942-45 "silver nickels" are cu-ni with a 75/25 composition. Can you possibly admit to being wrong? You are free to borrow my icon if you wish.
The U.S. nickel never used pure nickel. The first nickel produced (1866) was 25% nickel and 75% copper.
Thanks for clarifying that,as the newer U.S. nickels have a different ring to the older nickels.That is where I probably got confused. I am one who has paid more attention to the Canadian nickel 5c. series. Aidan.
To Aiden And I didn't know that much about the nickel. I saw a half-line mention of the length of minting...then came a few hours of research...Viola! Clinker
Must be something in the New Zealand air. Here in California I mixed 20 pre-2000 nickels with one of each Westward Journey and Return to Monticello. Without looking at them I pushed each one over the edge of a small shelf onto a wooden desk from a height of 4 inches. Neither my Beautiful Bride nor I could detect any difference. Of course none of them "rang", but they all "clunked" alike.
