War Nickels 1942-1945

[synthnut]

I picked up a War Nickel on my hunt yesterday ....Has anyone picked up any of these , and if so , what was your reading ? .......I remember finding this Nickel and it was a VERY solid tone and down about 4-5 inches .....I was not sure what it was because it rang so loud ......The strange part was that it was reading a solid , repeatable , 19 !!!......Has anyone had a Nickel read this high before ? ......I know that War Nickels are suppose to read a bit higher than normal but 19 ? ......I just checked it doing an air test , and sure enough it's reading a solid 19 !!.....Jim

 

[Mark ( ohio )]

his experience with the war nickels were a 16-17 reading..... Most all my 15 readings have been pull tabs or beaver tails.. A nickel does pop out on occasion at that number..

Mark

 

[Sky1]

On my safari a war nickel reads 20 but might bounce to 21 if not completely parallel to the coil

 

[Dan-o]

I have found 7 this year. I do remember one reading up to 20, but most 16/17. I just took all 7 out to the yard and laid them down. Did a noise cancel and tested in Low Trash Density. Pretty steady reading of 16 with the occasional 17 reading. But one kept reading 23 consistently.

Dan C

 

[synthnut]

WOW !!....Readings of 20-23 ? ....That's really something .....I was really surprised to be pulling a Nickel out at 19 ....I feel justified now that I see that there are others getting high readings ....Thanks to all for their replies .... Jim

 

[ronaldj2]

Don't they have a high silver content?

 

[synthnut]

Yes they do have a higher Silver content , but the readings are all over the place ....I"ve heard of readings from 16 to 23 on these Nickels ..... Big range for a coin that was only made 4 yrs .... Did the government have a load of Silver to get rid of ? ......Jim

 

[ronaldj2]

Well I think they needed all the copper and brass they could get, to make munitions. So copper was probably worth more than silver back then.