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Message:: [QUOTE="kvasir, post: 73160, member: 4139"]You have there a fantastic collection of nickels that reflects an important period of Canada's history. The man on the obverse is King George VI of Great Britain and of course Canada. The Latin phrase "GEORGIVS VI D:G:REX ET IND:IMD:" is short for George VI by grace of God King and Emperor of India. The 1944-1945 "victory" design during the WWII years has been used since 1943 in an effort to promote war effort. Very likely your 1944 and 1945 nickels was made mostly of steel but there was approximately 8000 pieces of the 1944 nickel minted in tombac (0.88 Cu, 0.12 Zn) with the increase war demand of copper and zinc forced the coin to be switched to steel. Most of the unissued tombac 1944 nickels were melted and only one is known to exist. So in practical terms only the 1942 nickel appeared in both nickel and the tombac versions. Note that the original nickel was indeed made of nickel till part of 1942 when war demanded that the coin be minted in tombac. Here are the stats for your 1944 and 1945 nickels:They are made of steel with 0.0127mm of Ni plating, and 0.0003mm of Cr plating. So you may notice a bluish-white colour from the chromium. Some are reportedly only plated with nickel. Here are the market value for both of these:...............Mintage.....EF-40...AU-50...MS-60...MS-63...MS-651944....11,532,784..........1.........2...........4...........7........451945....18,893,216..........1.........2...........4...........7........65Since 1946, the nickel coins have been returned to its original composition -- 100% nickel. I have answered 2 other threads about the 1947 nickel so i'll just paste part of the response here: The 1947 nickel is an interesting one. India gained independence in the early part of 1948 and left the mint scrambling for new obverse coinage tools. Why?? you asked, what does it have to do with Canada? Well the obverse was up till then since the beginning of King George VI's reign in 1937 inscripted with "GEORGIVS VI D:G:REX ET IND: IMP:" The same phrase has been in used since George V in 1911. With India's independence in the beginning of 1948, no way could the mint keep on using the phase "ET IND: IMP:" The tools would not arrive for several months but there was still great demand for all coin denominations. Hence coins were struck in 1948 using the 1947 obverse. But to distinguish these coins from the 1947 coins minted the previous year, the mint used a maple leaf privy mark at the end of the date to show this distinction. To further interest the matter though, some of which have only a dot. So there you have it, there would be 3 varieties of the 1947 nickel. Hence your 1947 Maple Leaf nickel was actually minted in 1948. Here's the market value for the coins dated 1947.-----------1947 plain--------1947 maple leaf--------1947 dot mintage---7,603,724--------------9,595,124----included in 9,595,124VF-20------------------------------------1$--------------40$EF-40------------2$----------------------2$--------------90$AU-50------------5$----------------------5$-------------200$MS-60-----------12$---------------------12$------------275$MS-63-----------30$---------------------25$------------450$MS-65----------200$--------------------175$-----------2000$ The 1951 nickel you have commemorated the 200th anniversary of the isolation and naming of the element nickel by a Swedish chemist. As this was the only canadian coinage minted in nickel it was indeed something to commemorate. The reverse design shows a nickel refinery. You have noted that the inscription on the reverse is now updated to omit "ET IND:IMP:". Mintage.....VF-20...EF-40...AU-50...MS-60...MS-63...MS-658,329,321....0.50..........1.........2...........4........10......150 There also exists the 1951 nickel with the regular beaver design. Only 4,313,410 were minted. The High Relief variety of that one worth (450$-3500$) SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the Low Relief variety (1$-100$). 1952 was the last year George VI appeared on Canadian coinage for he would die in February that year. His daughter accended whom is now known to us as Queen Elizabeth II. The mintage of coins with King George VI's effigy continued throughout the rest of the year. Mintage.......EF-40...AU-50...MS-60...MS-63...MS-6510,891,148........1.........2...........4........10......100 All values in Canadian Dollars, info and market values from the 59th Edition (2005) of the Charlton Standard Catalogue.[/QUOTE]

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