Mainstream Media Catching On To Nickels

Of all coins I like nickels the least....

Well Trout, all to true with the proper mint mark on the ol 1942-45 you have a silver content of 35%....

If I can find a nice War Nickel with amazing toning and a high PCGS or NGC grade I may consider buying it, lol....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1945-D-Jeff...em27c298b580

Yes T that would be amazing, say a nice MS-66 three legged buffalo rainbow toned an graded by PCGS....

Put that up at a dollar start an no reserve and list it for ten days, lol. Just set back an watch it climb into the thousands, if one could even part with such a rare special gem and not one milligram of silver present in that 1937 rare coin.....

I recently heard this cool story here about the steel penny/copper penny 1943....

So a kid had the typical grandparents who hoarded coins an passed them on to him back in early 80's. He went off to college an took an interest in coins an begin to learn about them. He returned home an went through all the change his grand parents passed and low an behold there it was a nice gradable example of a 1943 copper penny, which sold for like in the 100 thousands back then....

So if I am not mistaken, the 1943 penny is the only penny in history forged from steel/zinc, as copper was obviously being re-routed for war efforts, so very few copper penny's were minted. I am guessing just a few hundred started, an perhaps the war broke out and they changed to the steel ones....

I have a nice proof like set of three with Lincoln's image on the pack of three, an a cool history lesson on what I said above....

Awesome story, Hawk. Back in my preteen years in the '70's, my stepfather was a major collector of US coins. The man literally had everything. Every penny, nickel, dime, quarter, etc. from the late 1800's to 1964. It took two fairly large safes to hold it all. I'm guessing he didn't have anything in the one-hundred thousand range, maybe, but he owned a lot of high quality silver. Unfortunately for me, my Mom divorced him and he and I were never close so... no inheritance ;)
Anyway, years later, my mom told me that he bought the vast majority of his collection from a elderly neighbor woman who had no idea of its value, as her husband was the actual collector, and she was in dire straights after his sudden passing. I guess the stagflation of the '70's was tough on people with a fixed income. Long story short, he paid a couple grand for a silver horde worth, well, at least 50K, easy. But now that I'm the age he would have been when he made the transaction (highway robbery), I realize he swindled her and hopefully, he never enjoyed the fruits of his lack of labor. I'm sure there's a special place in Hades for people who prey on the gullibility of little old ladies.

That would be a huge breach of QC. Far more likely some blanks got stuck or tossed into a bin that they shouldn't have.

Funny how things get lost in the sands of time....

I imagine the worker who looked down at that handful of copper penny's that made it through the mint as just another cent, which had WAY more buying power in 1943 then it would today. An I figure if you were alive in an around that era or close to it you would agree.....

It would have took a real smart numismatic mind to look down an say...."Hey, these are special an their gonna be worth big money one day, be it 40 plus years, or longer." and bought them from change from their own pocket or whatever....

I imagine perhaps a smart worker or two knew what they would be an put them away for safe keeping, as some did get into those handful of change jars out there in the world....

I wonder when the numismatic world caught on to the rare factor and high value, as it seems like the story broke about 30 years back, which would line up with early 80's....

I imagine as early as 1950 that piece graded even way back then if such a thing existed then, would still bring big money to the right collector way back then, if in fact someone did in fact no about the rare/value of that 1943 copper penny....

Nice story, but prolly not true. From http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_min...=fun_facts2a