Mailed regular nickels rather than silver war nickels?

I just got a shipment of $10 face war nickels from JM Bullion. I was going through them and noticed that 12 of them were 1942 with no mint mark above the Monticello. Just wanted to make sure before I complained to JM...there has to be a mint mark on the back above the Monticello on the 1942's for it to actually be a silver war nickel, correct? Just want to make sure I'm not going insane. Pretty disappointing. This on top of the fact that I ordered them almost a month and a half ago. The nickels outside of the baggies are the 42's with no mintmark in the pic.

 

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You're correct; I'd be calling JM Bullion immediately if I were in your situation.

 

You are correct. There were two coins issued in 1942. The one containing silver will have a large letter on the reverse above the dome.

 

Correct. You'll find a large designator MM over the dome of the Monticello. Sometimes they get pretty warn, but a silver nickel has a different ring to it when you drop it on a table. You can confirm that way also.

 

Gotcha. Thank you. I thought so, from everything I have ever read. Just wanted to make sure. They mailed me SO MANY, I thought perhaps there was something I was missing or something. I mean, come on guys. Maybe you miss one or two, I suppose, but there were --12-- in there. Either no one sorted these or their sorter needs more training. Disappointing. I wonder how they are going to try and remedy this...

 

1942 was the first year of the 35% silver nickels, but I believe the Mint began the year with regular nickels. It's possible that JMB just made a simple mistake assuming that they were all 35% silver based on the date, alone, without checking the mintmark.

 

Thanks. Yep, these are not worn...definitely just no mint mark. There was only 1 nickel in the whole lot (besides the 42's) that was difficult to see the mintmark. That would be an awful coincidence if ALL the ones that seemingly had no mint mark were 42's, which they are. They screwed up.

 

That a pretty bad show and could be real bad for anyone who doesn't check and just sends to the stack

 

That stinks
War nickels are awesome

 

I wonder about the logistics of getting and selling war nickels in bulk. It's easy enough to sort silver from clad by weight and electromagnetic signature, but war nickels are exactly the same weight as cupronickel ones, and I'm not sure how different the electromagnetic behavior is.

Most of the times that I've spotted war nickels in batches of regular nickels, it's been by color. High-grade war nickels are silver, but in the usual circular grade they've almost always got that ugly greenish tone. I've seen non-silver nickels with that color, too, but it's unusual.

 

Thanks all. Anyway, just emailed JM to let them know. Course, them being located in TX, the automatic reply email after I emailed them informed me that due to the storm, they are staffed at 1/4 their regular staff this week, and it may take longer than usual for them to contact me....oy veh.

...hoping they can simply send me the twelve coins I am missing rather than do some screwy thing where I have to send them all back or something. We shall see.

 

Definitely time to call JM and welcome to CT.

 

@Idaho Guy
you are correct with your assumption and hopefully things get sorted out with the seller accordignly.

 

The green colour in circulated war nickels is caused by the manganese in the mixture.

 

Welcome to CT and please do let us know how this turns out.

 

So I contacted JM and they asked me to email them pictures of the nickels I said they incorrectly sent, as I suspected they probably would. After I sent them pictures they replied with this: "Thank you for contacting JM Bullion. We have reviewed your photos and determined the coins and the appearance are entirely normal. Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns." Wow. Seriously JM? NO mention whatsoever of the content of the complaint I sent them where I explained the difference between the non-silver 42's and actual war nickels...just that they are "entirely normal" What the heck am I missing here? They are 42's with no mint mark above the Monticello...so...they aren't war nickels, which I paid for. Attached are pics of the nickels I got that I sent them:

 

You're not missing...they are. That is unfortunate. You could press them further...escalate to the person in charge, but you might end up frustrating yourself. I'd go a click higher in the mix and drop it after that with a stern letter.

 

I already emailed them a stern response/email after that that this is unacceptable and that I will be calling their number tomorrow. I'll update to let everyone know what they say.

 

All but 2 have the MM next to Monticello — obviously not silver war nickels. Ask them to explain what makes these silver war nickels.
You could probably list them on Ebay or Etsy and make a killin’ on this “rare war variety.”

 

You should call them again and speak with a manager.