The US made war nickels out of silver because they needed the nickel for the war. Why didn't they just stop making nickels altogether until the war was over? Why did they go back to nickel after the war instead of just leaving the silver in them?
They didn't just stop making nickels during the war because obviously they needed them in circulation. I don't have the answer to the second question.
I was reading something years ago that questioned if there really was a shortage of nickel that was great enough to make the change necessary. Maybe it was. I don't know. Wonder why they picked silver? I would think they needed to save on the cost of coins.
It was easier and cheaper to make nickels with a new composition than to increase cent production by 6-fold. Part of the reason to change the compositions at all was to remind Americans we were at war.
