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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kasia, post: 1942467, member: 31533&quot;]Wartime Silver Alloy Jefferson Nickels.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is a small series of Jefferson Nickels that can be collected. The normal composition for the U.S. nickel at the time the United States entered WWII was a Cupro-Nickel (25% Nickel, 75% Copper) alloy which resulted in a very hard and durable coin. This made good sense, because the nickel was one of the coins that saw the most use for a number of things like a candy bar or pack of gum, a cup of coffee or a 12 oz Pepsi (before 1936 Pepsi was sold in 6oz bottles); even the Nickel Comics began to be printed that year. It also was more in value than many items that were everyday ‘necessities’ for a lot of people. Postage for first class mail was only 3 cents, a newspaper cost 3 cents, and there really was the ‘penny postcard’. Much of life’s necessities competed for the use of many nickels in society, and they had to be long-wearing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some things a nickel could buy in 1941:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]337524[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The nickel in 1941:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]337525[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But all that changed when the US went to war at the end of 1941. As soon as war was declared it became known that certain metals were needed for the war effort; nickel was especially needed due to its strength as an alloy material. There weren’t many places the U.S. was getting their supply of Nickel from; primarily it came from the Sudbury area of Ontario, Canada, and the war machine was hungry for it. So the coinage would have to suffer by having its composition changed. Within four months from the entry of America in the war, Congress authorized the mint to change the composition to 50% copper and 50% silver ‘nickel’ yet also allowed it to be not a set alloy percentage; the mint could vary those percentages and also add others if it was needed. It then took about another six months for the mint to start up production on the new nickels with a final mix of 35% silver, 9% manganese and 56% copper. This alloy would be suitable for the nickel’s use during the war. No change was made to the weight or size of the nickel. It was important that use of these coins would be able to continue for machines. The delay in these issues did not impede on the country’s needs as in 1941 quite a few coins of this denomination were still on hand in the Treasury and able to be put into circulation. That year there had been over 300 million nickels minted. Also, in the interim between the start of 1942 and October of that year, just over an additional 63 million nickels were officially produced with the old materials available, but only by the Denver and Philadelphia mints.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]337526[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; (Nickel mined was to be used for war efforts, not coinage)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The biggest change in the war nickel as far as design was the change in size and placement of the mintmark. Each mint (Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco) was minting nickels during 1942 – 1945 and to distinguish these nickels from the previous composition, the mint mark was placed in a large, prominent position on the reverse. That way, the intent was, that these could easily be removed from circulation.&nbsp; None of the coins was expected to have to remain in circulation very long, perhaps only a few years.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]337527[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The placement of the mintmark on the Silver War Nickels</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The Jefferson War Nickels is a short series, it only encompasses 4 years in total, with 3 mints producing business strikes. The years and mints with their mintage figures (Silver alloy) is:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>1942-P&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 57,873,000</p><p>1942-S&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 32,900,000</p><p>1943-P&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 271,165,000</p><p>1943-D&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 15,294,000</p><p>1943-S&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 104,060,000</p><p>1944-P&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 119,150,000</p><p>1944-D&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 32,309,000</p><p>1944-S&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 21,640,000</p><p>1945-P&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 119,408,100</p><p>1945-D&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 37,158,000</p><p>1945-S&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; 58,939,000</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Based on the above figures, a collection of business strike issues of these coins can be had with only 11 coins total. There is one proof issue available and that is the 1942P. So if you do a full collection of one of each of the strikes Business and Proof (without collecting errors or varieties) there is a total of 12 coins. The reverse which is the design change for these ‘silver’ nickels. This is quite an interesting small collection that someone can do.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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