• Silver Nickel Years Made
• Value Of Nickels By Year
• 1964 Nickel Silver Content
• Silver Nickel Years 1964
• Silver Nickel Years
• Canadian Silver Nickels Years Made

Nickels minted in the United States between 1942 and 1945 are made of 35% silver. These are commonly known as 'silver war nickels.'

Silver Nickel Years Made

• 1943-P Nickel 1943-P Nickel: 3 Over 2 1943-P Nickel: Doubled Eye 1943-D Nickel 1943-S Nickel View Entire Jefferson Nickel Coin List Even More Jefferson Nickel Years/Mints/Varieties 1942-S Nickel 1942-P Nickel 1942-D Nickel: D Over Horizontal D 1942-D Nickel 1942 Nickel 1944-P Nickel 1944-D Nickel 1944-S Nickel 1945-P Nickel 1945-P Nickel.
• Nickels were first minted in the United States in 1866. At that time most coins were made out of silver or gold. The United States made lower denomination coins out of pure copper. Although the nickel is silver in color, it has no silver in it.
• Calculate 35% silver value: (26.96 ×. × 5.00 ×.35) = $1. $1.5168 is the rounded silver value for the 1942-1945 silver nickel on February 05, 2021. This is usually the value used by coin dealers when selling these coins at melt value. However, the total melt value is continued below. Calculate 56% copper value.
• That year, Congress also allowed the Secretary of the Treasury to authorize the redesign of United States coins, if the former design had been struck for at least 25 years. Although the nickel and silver dollar had been redesigned within the previous quarter-century, a provision in the latter act made them eligible for immediate redesign.

You will be looking for: The mintage year. If the nickel in question was minted in 1942, 1943, 1944 or 1945, you likely have a coin with Silver. Slightly different coloration. While you still should know what year nickels are Silver, the lustrous appearance of the.

Normally all other nickels are composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel. Due to the pressing need for industrial metals like nickel during World War II, five-cent coins were actually made from 35% pure silver during the duration of the war. The rest of the alloy was made up of copper (56%) and manganese (9%).

Interestingly, using this alloy meant that vending machines and coin-operated devices would still recognize and accept the silver nickels.

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How to Identify Silver War Nickels

At first glance, these silver nickels are difficult to distinguish from their copper-nickel counterparts. They look like any other old nickel to most of us. You'll see the same portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the obverse. Even the color is virtually identical.

Pile of war nickels

There are a few key visual differences you can keep an eye out for, however.

The easiest way to check for a silver war nickel is the year-date on the coin. All nickels produced from 1942 to 1945 use the 35% silver composition.

On the reverse (tails) side of the coin, you'll still find the familiar building known as Monticello, Jefferson's famous estate that he supposedly designed himself.

However, only the silver war nickels will place the mintmark on this side of the coin. The letter will either be a P, D, or an S prominently placed above Monticello

How to Tell If Your Coins Are Silver

Silver war nickels aren’t the only valuable coins you might find in your spare change. There are, in fact, several other silver coins you could potentially come across—and they’re actually 90% pure silver.

Chief among these are silver dimes. They generally come in three different varieties:

• Barber dimes (1892-1916)
• Mercury dimes (1916-1945)
• Roosevelt dimes (1946-1964)

Because of their relatively small size, quite a few of these dimes have survived in circulation. Less often you can still find 90% silver quarters, as well.

Coin dealers usually sell bank rolls or large bags of this “junk silver” grouped together by face value. Common increments are $100 or $1,000 face value.

This works because the amount of fine silver (by weight) in each coin denomination was roughly proportional to their face value.

In other words,

• a silver dime (10¢ face value) contains approximately 1/5th as much silver as a silver half dollar (50¢ face value);
• a silver quarter (25¢ face value) contains approximately 1/4th as much silver as a silver dollar (100¢ face value);
• and so on.

What Other Coins Are Silver?

Even in the United States, you may occasionally come across foreign silver coins in circulation. The most common are 80% silver coins from Canada.

Canadian 80% silver coins (quarters, half dollars, and dollars) were minted between 1920 and 1967. Prior to 1920, the 92.5% pure (.925 fine) sterling silver standard for British coins was used.

Some commemorative coins and proof sets issued by the U.S. Mint are still composed of 90% silver today in limited quantities.

The key thing to know:All U.S. dimes, quarters, and half dollars minted in 1964 or earlier are composed of 90% silver. Keep this fact in mind any time you decide to buy silver.

There are very specific dates for the Kennedy half dollar and Eisenhower dollar that are also made of 40% silver. Check the infographic below for more details!

Value Of Nickels By Year

The Jefferson Silver Nickel, also known as the Wartime Nickel, was struck by the United States Mint from 1942-1945 from a composition of 35% silver. As struck, each coin contained .05626 ounces of the precious metal.

The coins actually first appeared in 1938, but at that time were produced from a cupro-nickel composition. The design on the coins was taken from the work of Felix Schlag who won a competition against hundreds of other artists. His portrait of Jefferson was based on a marble bust of the third President of the United States by Jean-Antoine Houdon.

1964 Nickel Silver Content

The standard composition of the 5-cent piece continued until 1942 when a critical shortage of the metal nickel (owing to World War II) forced the United States Mint to change the composition of the strikes to instead contain 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese, thus resulting in 'wartime' Jefferson Silver Nickel.

To differentiate these coins from the standard composition releases, the United States Mint included a large mintmark above the image of Monticello on the reverse. It also pressed a ‘P’ mintmark for those produced at the US Mint’s facility in Philadelphia, the only time the ‘P’ was used on a circulating coin until 1980.

Silver Nickel Years 1964

Silver continued to be used in the coins through 1945 when the end of the war alleviated metal shortages and the US Mint returned to their pre-war standard composition.

Silver Nickel Years

The obverse of the 5-cent piece contains a portrait of the third President of the United States, and a founding father of the country, Thomas Jefferson. The portrait was completed by Felix Schlag with the inscriptions of IN GOD WE TRUST, LIBERTY and the year surrounding it.

Canadian Silver Nickels Years Made

For the obverse, an image of Jefferson’s home known as Monticello is shown. It was also completed by Felix Schlag and included the inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, FIVE CENTS and MONTICELLO. The Wartime Nickels also included a large mintmark above Monticello.