silver nickels

When did nickels switch from (whatever content) silver to it’s current copper/nickel alloy? Was it 1965? How much more valuable are the older silver-containing nickels? I’ve noticed that some people sell them for more than 5 cents, but on the other hand, they’re fairly easy to find in common usage.

As far as I know, buffalo nickels (the current design) were always made of nickel (or, rather, cupronickel, a copper-nickel alloy). That is, after all, why they are called “nickels.” The previous nickel coin was also cupronickel, so you’d have to go back to the 19th century to find any silver five-cent pieces, if they were made at all.

Dimes, quarters, and half dollars were made of silver until 1964, when they went to the sandwich (also cupronickel).

Jefferson nickels have been copper/nickel since they started back in 1938, with the exeption of a few years during WW II when they were made from copper, silver and manganese.

Info courtesy of http://www.usmint.gov

Yeah, nickels have always been nickel, except for WWII, when they were made out of silver (I think the years are '42 through '45 or '46, can’t remember for sure). You can easily tell if you have a silver nickel because the mintmark was large and over the Monticello, as opposed to small and to the right of the Monticello.

They are not to be confused with the silver five cent pieces minted in the 19th century, which were called half-dimes.

I don’t know about nickels, but current pennies are copper over magnesium. They should ignite if you heat them up.

skribbler, aren’t pennies made with copper over ZINC, not magnesium?

I’m afraid you might not know much about pennies either. They are not magnesium.

Pennies: delicious, nutritious, Zinc-A-Licious!

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/Med/PENNY.HTM

You are correct. I was in error. Pennies are copper plated zinc.

They don’t. In fact, they’re less fun to melt on a hotplate than all the other US coins. Of course, I haven’t tried a half dollar before, and now that the new dollar coins are out I know better. Them’s the breaks… <:I

Hmm - a relatively new person who politely acknowledges their error. :slight_smile:

I like you already.

Una

The nickel was introduced into circulation in 1883. Before then, there was a smaller coin that was referred to as the half-dime, also worth five cents (obviously.) The new coin was to be called a half-dime as well, but since they were made of nickel, the name nickel caught on.

Since 1883, the U.S. Mint has used pretty much the same alloy to make nickels. The nickel is actually made of 25% nickel—the rest is copper and a couple of other metals that comprise a very small percentage of the makeup of the coin. Nickel itself is too brittle to make a 100% nickel coin. In fact, the same cupronickel alloy is used in dimes, quarters and half dollars, sandwiched with a layer of bronze. This has been the case with dimes and quarters since 1965, and half dollars since 1971.

The only time in U.S. history after 1883 when nickels didn’t have any copper in them was from the middle of 1942 to the end of 1945. During World War II, the government needed as much copper for the war effort as it possibly could get, so nickels were actually made of a silver/nickel alloy. These color of these coins is a little different, but to tell for sure whether they’re of the partially silver variety, look on the backs of the coins at Monticello. The silver coins have a letter hovering above it, either a P, D or S—indicating either the Philadelphia, Denver or San Francisco mints. On regular coins (before 1968) the mint mark was smaller and appeared to the right of Monticello.)

No one’s answered the second question, how valuable are they? I remember when silver was at its peak in the eighties, you could figure on ten times the face value of a silver coin (just for bullion value), so a dime was worth about a dollar, a quarter was worth about two and a half dollars, etc. I know the silver nickels didn’t contain the 90% silver of dimes and quarters, but I think the bigger size made up for the smaller percentage. Does anyone know the current value?

This is going to sound like a cop-out, but in terms of the “value” of coins, they are worth what someone will pay for them. Coin dealers will never pay a price even close to the Red or Black book values, and will often pay even under the value of the metal in some cases. Why? Because people will sell to them at those prices.

If you are asking about merely the value of the metal, that should be easy to calculate.

From October 8, 1942, through 1945, the nickel was composed of 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese. But I don’t know if that is by weight or by volume, and web searches are failing me right now…

Thanks. Another question, why are our coins (nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars) silver-colored, considering that they are currently 75% copper and 25% nickel? Shouldn’t they more closely approximate the color of copper than nickel?

Just as a guess, I would think one of the silver nickels would typically go for around a dollar.

As Chance the Gardener said, the American five-cent piece in the U.S. has been 3 parts copper and 1 part nickel since 1883. In fact, according to Isaac Asimov in Building Blocks of the Universe, coins in ancient Bactria (now part of Afghanistan) were made of copper and nickel in the same proportions.
During World War II nickel was a critical war material and was eliminated altogether from the 5c piece. As other Dopers have noted, the large mint mark indicated change of alloy, and the wartime nickel contained silver–35%, along with 56% copper and 9% manganese.
Why a nickel in the current composition is nickel-colored instead of copper-colored nobody knows. Metallurgists will tell you, incidentally, that except for aluminum, all metals, when powdered, are black. Aluminum powder is silvery. :slight_smile:

Nickels were not introduced in 1883 but rather 1866. The design was a shield on the obverse and a large numeral “5” on the reverse. The design was changed in 1883 to a female head of liberty on the obverse and a Roman numeral 5 on the reverse.

As I work in the largest retail coin shop in Ohio, I feel my opinion on values is valid.

We currently pay the public 12 cents for a war nickel. If you wish to buy them mixed, as they come from the barrel, we sell them in quantity for about 20 cents. If you want a particular date/mint for your collection, it’s 50 cents(the additional 30 cents being the cost of waiting on you and stocking/sorting some coins by date. I would estimate that we buy 25-50,000 war nickels per year. The bulk of what we buy is melted.

Actually, you could say the first nickels were from 1865. Three cent nickels, that is.