Gresham's Law Missed This One

You know Gresham's law, right? It's the rule that states that when two coins are equal in debt paying value but unequal in intrinsic value, the one of lesser intrinsic value tends to remain in circulation and the other tends to be hoarded.

This is shortened into the common "bad money drives out good."

This is why you don't find old silver (or gold!) coins being used in normal transactions anymore.

Why would you spend a silver quarter (worth $3 in silver value) at the face value of 25 cents when you can use a clad quarter (4 cents in metal value) to buy the same amount of goods?

Well, people don't. They take the coins with more value out of circulation. That is why finding a silver nickel in my change was quite a surprise. I think this is the third time in my entire life that I have found silver coinage in my change.

I run the office snack bar, so I often take a quick look at the coins for anything special. Normally, this is just taking 100% copper pennies out but today was something a bit more special.

A quick glance at my change and I knew that this nickel was worth taking a closer look.

How could I tell? Let me teach you.

How To Quickly Identify A Silver War Nickel

Take a look at this pile of nickels and see if one stands out.

The "dirty" appearance of that one nickel at the top left makes it worthy of further investigation.

Why? Because silver tarnishes.

During the WWII years of 1942-1945 the US changed the normal metal composition of the nickel from 75% copper and 25% nickel to 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese. This was due to the hugely increased need for copper and nickel for the war.

So the next step is to look for the year of the coin. 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945 are the years you want to see.

One last step to guarantee that your nickel is silver is to look at the reverse of the coin for a large mintmark above the dome of Monticello.

Notice how the "normal" nickels don't have a mintmark there at all. This makes it easy to spot.

So if you have a nickel minted between 1942 and 1945 and it has a large mintmark on the reverse, then you have yourself a nickel that is worth close to $1 at current silver prices.

To Recap

Sure, you can check the date of each nickel you get, or flip them over and look for the mintmark, but doing that would take a lot of time for a very low chance of reward for that effort.

• Look for any coins with discoloration.
• Check the date, looking for anything from 1942-1945.
• Flip it over and look for the large mintmark. It will be either 'P', 'D', or 'S'.

That's it!

These simple tips helped me throw a little bit more silver in my stockpile. They can do the same for you.

Happy hunting.