July 4th nickels

BuffaloBoy · Jul 4, 2012

hey folks, I got out today and bought myself a box of nickels from an area where I have not gotten coin from before...
nickel boxes around me have been solid 2012, but i finally found some nickels not solid 2012!

the results...

1935p buffalo nickel
1937p buffalo nickel

1945p silver wartime nickel...

got a nice chunk of america right there for only 15c... can't go wrong there... lots of history behind them coins, from the buffalo nickel(1913) not fitting in the soda machine to the silver wartime era nickels(1942-1945) where they needed the nickel from the nickels for ammo and replaced with 35% silver...

happy 4th everybody!
HH
Buff

mercury1 · Jul 4, 2012

Really? I had thought it was the nickel they needed for the war effort and swapped the silver for the nickel. So what is the composition of a war nickel?

Diver_Down · Jul 4, 2012

Sorry, Buff. It was nickel that was needed for the war effort.

sagittarius98 · Jul 4, 2012

mercury1 said:
So what is the composition of a war nickel?

56% copper, 35% silver, 9% manganese

BuffaloBoy · Jul 4, 2012

woops, edited... well, still a history lesson

Diver_Down said:
Sorry, Buff. It was nickel that was needed for the war effort.

Diver_Down · Jul 5, 2012

BuffaloBoy said:
woops, edited... well, still a history lesson

Not to be a stickler, but since we are talking history lessons, the nickel was used to produce nickel-steel armor plating. For those that are interested: Silver Nickels and Steel Cents Replaced Regular U.S. Coins During World War II - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

The link also provides a concise explanation on the steel cents.