Is Nickel Ever Silver?
It may seem odd to think of a common nickel as being made out of silver. Most of us think that the face value of a 5 cent nickel would be too low to ever be made from a precious metal. Besides, the common name of a 5 cent piece implies the base metal that is is minted from.
However during WWII, the war effort needed the base metal more then they needed the precious one! So WWII nickels are made from .35 silver, as well as 56% copper, and 9% manganese! An easy way to identify them is to notice the large mint mark over the dome on the reverse.
Silver Melt Value of WWII Silver Nickels
Don’t get me wrong. I think that collectables like WWII silver nickels are interesting pieces of history, and I don’t just see every coin as a source of bullion. And if others didn’t think like me, we would probably not have any of these nickels left because they actually are a source of silver in US coins.
If you have $1 in WWII silver nickles, or 20 nickels, then the silver content is about 1.12 troy ounces. Note that is more then the silver value in a dollar’s worth of 90% silver, which would only be .715 troy ounces! At today’s price of about $17.30 an ounce, 20 silver WWII US 5 cent pieces would be worth about $19.47! So if you find some, please do not stick them in a gumball machine. Go here to estimate the silver bullion value of WWII nickels at the current price.
silver nickels, wwii nickels, nickels, coins, silver
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