old park pops more silver and jewelry

imafishingnutt · Nov 2, 2007

today i hit the old park again after work
found my first merc dime 1941
found a 1941 wheaty
1945 nickle
several pennies 60s
and a gold plated pendant with christ on the cross
the back of it says
I am catholic please call a preast
it was 5 inches down and had no chain.
pic update added

ModernMiner · Nov 2, 2007

Congrats on your finds, and welcome to the Merc Club. We've been expecting you.

-MM-

watercolor · Nov 2, 2007

WTG on the silver! Merc's are always nice!

I still haven't found any silver nickels yet

imafishingnutt · Nov 2, 2007

watercolor said:
WTG on the silver! Merc's are always nice!

I still haven't found any silver nickels yet

I didnt know they made silver nickles

SgtSki in MI · Nov 3, 2007

War Nickels

imafishingnutt said:
watercolor said:

WTG on the silver! Merc's are always nice!

I still haven't found any silver nickels yet

Click to expand...

I didnt know they made silver nickles

During WW2 from 1942 to 1945, Nickel was needed for the war effort. So was copper, hence the 1943 Steel Penny. Nickels during those years were minted in an alloy composed of 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese. They can be identified by the mintmark being above the dome of Monticello on the reverse. Incidentally, these nickels were the first coins to ever bear the "P" mintmark of Philadelphia.

Something else on wartime coins too. You may have noticed that 1944-1946 Wheaties act differently on some detectors than other pre-1982 copper pennies. This is because the planchets were made from recycled shell casings and the composition was 95% copper and 5% zinc as opposed to the normal composition used from 1864 to 1982 of 95% copper , 5% tin AND zinc.

Another interesting fact about nickels...The Nickel is the ONLY U.S. coin to maintain the same composition, weight, thickness, and diameter throughout it's ENTIRE existence (except for WW2) from 1866 to now.

Anyway, that's my coin essay for the day.

HH,
SgtSki

SgtSki in MI · Nov 3, 2007

plehbah said:
How can a medal be a Catholic?

Congrats on your first Mercury dime. That is a beautiful coin.

By attending Catechism and receiving its First Communion?

halfdime · Nov 3, 2007

An interesting observation by SgtSki about the coins, especially the nickels. I get different readings from V nickels, Buffs and Jeffersons. I've only found one Shield, so there isn't enough evidence to draw a conclusion. You would think, with the same composition, that these nickels would read the same, but the Buffs seem to ring the strongest for me.

SgtSki in MI · Nov 3, 2007

halfdime said:
An interesting observation by SgtSki about the coins, especially the nickels. I get different readings from V nickels, Buffs and Jeffersons. I've only found one Shield, so there isn't enough evidence to draw a conclusion. You would think, with the same composition, that these nickels would read the same, but the Buffs seem to ring the strongest for me.

You would get different readings from older nickels due to the way that they corrode. A bronze Indian Head (1864-1909) has the exact same composition as any other copper penny prior to 1982 (except '43 to '46) yet on my detector they read differently and I find some older wheaties acting like IHs too lately. Like you, I've only found one Shield Nickel (in 25 years of detecting) so I don't have enough data for the nickels. Something else I've thought about too, though, is that I think that older coins weren't struck as strongly as later coins due to technology changes at the mint that allowed greater striking force, so older coins are less dense....that's just a theory though, but I've found enough silver dimes to know that on my machine (Explorer XS) Seated sound different from Barbers, which sound different from Mercs, but silver Rosies and Mercs act about the same. So what I've found for pennies and dimes should hold for nickels too, and I think also holds up my mint machinery theory. I need to get back home Stateside so I can collect more data though!

HH,
SgtSki