1942 S war nickel NOT silver? UPDATE with scratch/scribe question?

UPDATE...
I recently took my coin to a new pawn store that I suspect to NOT be silver...that should be. they tried telling me that they use a chart to read to determine if a coin is silver. so according to the chart my coin ( a 1942 S war nickel) SHOULD be silver (which I already knew). I went on to explain to him the 1943 copper penny and the 1944 henning nickel and politely asked if he could do the test anyways. upon doing the test twice he asked someone else to come over and do the test as well and they both said there is NO EVIDENCE OF SILVER. he said it is called the scratch/scribe test. that when they do the test a silver coin should have some resistance and this coin just slid along the rock. so how accurate is the test?

 

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War nickels are 35% silver, not 90% or above like other denominations. It may not "respond" as well to the test due to this.

 

this coin is from a previous thread. sent to Mike diamond and he said ring and appearance match cu-ni alloy. some have been following updates so I was reporting that the silver test came up negative. I will be sending it pcgs now. this week or next. my only worry that if it is NOT silver... that it might be counterfeit. which I will be out the money but at the very least it would be reported so other people will know to watch out for them.

 

Well, if it is off-metal, I hope the "scratch/scribe" tests didn't leave it ungradeable.

Still waiting for elaboration from that one poster who said metal "migrates" in war nickels and causes them to lose silver content disproportionately as they wear.

 

Jeff, maybe this will shed some interest. It seems such has been documented on the nano scale of operation. So I guess the outside could have a milligram/cc more silver atoms than the inside, but see no practical significance to numismatics.

Wait is that why the outside of my coins are always more worn than the inside !!!!!!! YES, a numismatic significance. Jim

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=ftp://www.cavs.msstate.edu/pub/ICME/Spring_2015/LSN15.EAM.MEAM/Baskes%201986_PRB_Foiles_EAM_CUAGAU.pdf&hl=en&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm3qTq8hrFVHskw3vVDTSCV7hEk_Ww&nossl=1&oi=scholarr.
ps. all of my security modules say the download is safe.

 

Please note on the submission flip to PCGS
that you think it's on the wrong metal content planchet.

 

Hmm. I'm not gonna claim that I got all of that in my quick skim, but I did notice the bit in section 5 where they said "Of course, these energies are computed in the dilute limit and can change substantially if there is a significant concentration of the impurity near the surface". 35% is certainly "a significant concentration", well beyond the dilute limit, right?

 

Why do we need a separate thread for this same - edited - nickel every time? Wouldn't it be easier to keep things together?
@bryantallard, if you are so convinced that this is an off-metal coin, send it in and be done already. Seriously.

 

I read it as contaminants other than silver and Ni. Metallic binding is very tough, no wonder it is seldom taught in lower chem classes as it confuses the -edited- out of the students after covalent bonding. But it is very interesting for microcircuit consideration, but not enough to spend more time with it. Jim

 

Disclosure: I never made it to any of those higher classes. But I did study semiconductor manufacturing a good bit on my own. Folks in that field have to know all about the behavior of impurities, including in the "dilute limit" (dilute impurities turn an insulator into a semiconductor, or vice versa). If those "impurities" (dopants) were migrating significantly, computer chips would come with an expiration date. They don't.

 

A lot of huffing and puffing over something that is not an error. Just submit it for God's sake. All these "updates" are not convincing anyone here. Starting a new thread is even more annoying. And why would you go to a pawn shop? And why would you scrape it to test it if you thought it could be a surprise discovery? If you really thought it was legit, you would have submitted it already.

 

Have you tried a specific gravity test? Not really sure of the details but this would be free. Test a war nickel and a nickel. If there are different results then this will be the most bestest testest to hell with the restest. Good luck.

 

Said Fester Bester Tester

 

Send the nickel to a TPG. Good luck!

 

Did this pawn shop really not have an XFR? Or an acid test kit? I’ll be honest here I’ve never heard of this scratch/scribe test, but it’s seems horriblely unreliable based of what you described.

 

1942 didnt they have an early cu nickel later on it went to silver

 

Sound like the coin shop did a "sliding pass a RE magnet" test used for testing near 100% bullion. Would not deflect for 35% silver. Which is cheaper in your area, XFR test or PCGS fees?

 

Sorry for running out of patience but you've been given accurate advice on how to determine if it's genuine. The specific analytical tests or submitting it to a TPG. However you chose to get another opinion from someone that has no clue. As mentioned, the slide test won't tell you anything and it's obvious that the operator did have a clue. What you are doing is the equivalent to trying to find good legal advice by going to a dive bar at 2am.

Now, please quit screwing around with your update nonsense. Either get a real chemical analysis done by someone who has the correct equipment and knows what they are doing or send it for authentication.

 

red cent
Yes in 1942 the made Philly and Denver nickels, and then Philly and San Fran silver nickels.
This one is most likely silver, since if it was a wrong metal, it has more of a chance if it came from Philly.
Because of the different metals content (copper, manganese, silver)
the silver nickels come in a variety of muted tones.

 

Just send the coin in once and for all. We've been hearing about this same exact coin forever now in multiple different threads. I'm sure everyone is curious whether the nickel is silver or not but you haven't really proved anything yet.

Send it to a TPG (specifying that you think it's not silver) and see what they say.