The Last War Jefferson Finally At Home!

42 D nickels in circulation are fairly common and inexpensive BUT YOUR 1942 D is a swell addition to your collection. A key date in uncirculated and a very nice original coin at that. Something to be proud of. Congrats!

Beautiful!


In my opinion, yes.

While they are not the "wartime silver alloy" like the other " War Nickels" they are still historically significant since they were minted during the war. That being said, the 1942 plain is also a War Nickel by that definition.

By including the two Cu-Ni 1942 nickels, one sees the affect of the war on our monetary composition (a necessitated alloy change for the war effort).

Very nice coin. I also got confused when I first saw the location of the mint mark.

Sure, why not. If they are in your collection, call them what you want.

I think my point was missed. It was in the context of WWII, which had an affect on the alloy of our five cent piece. Since no alloy change was required for the other wars mentioned, it is not as significant (in my opinion).

Another example of the war context is a set I used to see (probably by Littleton or someone similar; I will try to find one) that had "Wartime Pennies" as the subject. The 1942 "original" alloy, the 1943 steel cents, and the 1944~1945 "cartridge case" cents (which were also minted in 1946).

Yes, the wartime nickels are best described as those using the silver alloy, but if someone wants to build a wartime nickel set, they are free to include the non-silver 1942 nickels as well.

After, it is their set, right?

Yes, I can, too...

No problem, I just saw it as good fun. No harm, no foul.

My "making the point" was for the others.

LOL To further explain my thinking. As Jbuck said, the two non silver 42s are tied in as they show the change in priorities needed to go into full war gear. To me, a War Nickel run is not complete without them.

Celtic, that baby is now residing in my Dansco Jefferson album. The album is the one including the proofs, hence my requirement of nothing less than AU58 on the non proof coins.

mitch, yeah, the reverse IS awesome. One of the few coins I have where the reverse is the side I would display first (aside from the state/ATB quarters, westward nickels or the special lincolns). But since its in the Dansco, its in normal.

NickelGuy, I have only found like 2 or 3 of the silver nickels and none of the 42 plain or D in the last few years. Id love to find a few in rolls every box. :)

I love your '42-D Nickel!

The 1942-D is the lowest mintage five-cent coin of that year, and I would think less percentage of 1942 Cu-Ni's
were saved in Mint State than that year's 35% silver issues.

When you take the Denver Mint tour (no cameras allowed ), you get to see (and even touch, if you want to) the Mint's " War Nickel" sorter.
Since the wartime-planchet coins had about five cents of silver content even when they were new,
the Fed had a contingency plan to recall them from circulation immediately after the war.
Never enacted, but the sorter is a car-sized reminder of what could have happened.