42 War Nickel Question

Hey guys, I just started collecting old silver coinage, I've research a lot and personally have only been interested in 90 percent coins. Thus, those are what I’ve researched mostly. With that said, I knew that the 42-45 Nickel, the "War Nickel", was 35 percent silver and saw a large lot of them on sale. It wasn't until after I made my purchase and spent a lot of money, that I learned that only some of the 1942 Nickels were 35 percent silver. The man I purchased them from was advertising them as "Silver War Nickels".
So I have a few questions.

First, is the non-silver 1942 coin still even considered a War Nickel? If not I might be able to get my money back due to false advertising, if I could see a link to something talking about this it would be great.

Second, how can I tell the difference between a 42 silver and a 42 with nickel and cooper? I assume it has to do with a scale, so what are the correct weights?

 

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No scale needed. the Silver nickels have a large mintmark above monticello on the reverse, the non-silver don't.

 

Telling the difference is easy. All partially silver nickels will have a large mintmark above Monticello on the reverse, even if its a P. Btw, this is the first time in history P was used for Philadelphia coins.

No large mintmark, and its not partially silver. If its not partially silver, its not a "war nickel" and you should ask for a refund.

 

Jeeze, you guys are fast. Thank you very much. I'm going to go through them either tonight or tomorrow night when I get home from work.

 

We simply know it by heart. Heck, I don't even collect US coins anymore.

Btw, if you are going to collect US coins, we STRONGLY suggest buying a copy of the Redbook. Its a great source of knowledge. As a kid I read it cover to cover over and over again until it was basically memorized. Its a great beginning to your numismatic education if you wish to collect US coins.

Good luck!

 

Ill definitely look into that, I started collecting silver coins a few months ago but I've already been interested in others, it gets kind of addicting.

 

Buy the book before the coins, dude...

 

I will

 

Excellent... a Red Book is the price of 1 silver half.

 

Or less if you buy a year or two old version.

Its not the pricing that we wish you to use OP, its the knowledge contained in the pages about the coins. This knowledge does not change much from year to year, so its fine to be cheap and buy a 2 year old copy. I have literally hundreds of books on coins, and this is what I do about every 7 years.

 

Very true, Redbook prices are pretty much horrible across the board. For pricing, use ebay, HA.com, and the TPG price guides aren't bad most of the time.

 

Yeah I never look at asking / book prices. My dad always told me a coin is only worth what someone will pay for it, so I usually check "completed" auctions on ebay to see what people pay. Its not perfect but gives me a general idea.

 

Hello,

Not that it is needed, but here are examples of the 42 clad, and the 42 silver nickel.
Like medoraman mentioned, notice the mint mark on the silver is above the Monticello and very large.

1942 P Clad Jefferson Nickel:
mintage: 49,818,600
composition: 75% Copper / 25% Nickel
weight: 5 grams
diameter: 21.2 mm
Designer: Felix Schlag




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1942 P Silver "War" Jefferson Nickel:
mintage: 57,900,600
composition: 56% Copper / 35% Silver / 9% Magenese
weight: 5 grams
diameter: 21.2 mm
Designer: Felix Schlag






-greg

 

I actually do appreciate having something hard to reference back to, thanks a lot!

 

here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...ta_binding_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used

save yourself a few bucks. They can be found used for under $5.

 

Just ordered it, thanks

 

'42 (or any other) Nickels are not clad.

 

Whatever, Copper/Nickel, non-silver...blah blah.
I put the composition there if you didn't see it.

 

A newbie came here asking a valid question requiring a correct answer.
Yet you answer with misinformation and when corrected your response is "Whatever, Copper/Nickel, non-silver...blah blah."?
If it's too much trouble for you to give a correct answer, why bother giving any answer?

 

So you just point out peoples mistakes instead of actually correcting them yourself? Gotchya!