Friday, September 14, 2012

A Short Guide To Wartime Coinage

By George Lapidis


Silver war coin is the term used for nickels that were produced by the United States in middle of the warring years from 1942 to 1945. The war coins were composed of 56% copper which was used with a 5% silver and 9% manganese.

Silver was originally favoured for its intrinsic importance as well as its different polish. Like gold, it is a valuable metal. Over time, nevertheless, there have been other reasons for using silver in coinage, such as deficits of another metal. For example, the US silver war coins of the 1940s were mass-produced with some silver on account of it was one of the replacements for the nickel conventionally used for those coins.

Nickel differs from silver in several ways, the mostsubstantial of which-for that time-was its heavy usage in military production. The use of silver for the war coins changed their weight as well as their looks, making them rare and important additions to any numismatist's compilation.

Since they were minted in the San Francisco facility they bore the mint mark of "S". In later years silver war coins were also minted in Denver as well as Philadelphia and displayed the mint marks correctly. These coins are also assumed as being the first coins to be minted with the mark of the Philadelphia mintage accommodation.

When compiling coins, you shall find that some of the more dedicated numismatists debate on the importance of the mint mark in categorising collected works. Whether you pick out to start a compilation based on mint mark or year depends on you, of course. Some mint marks are fairly easy to find, such as the mint marks on the silver war coins-commonly found beside the Monticello's dome-but a few may be a little more hidden. You should be able to discover it if you be familiar with what you are looking for.

There have been some silver war coins during the whole of the history of the US, not least on account of these were minted to commemorate great events in history, and there have been many of these in America's history. One example is the 1942 coin that commemorated the significant achievements in the war amidst that time.

Additional considerable war coin would be the nickels of 1943, which were in honour of the German defeat by the Russians and the many victories of the allies. As with most other coins in the US, these have three possible mint marks: S, D, or P. Most US coins come from one of these mints, the latter two being Denver and Philadelphia, and collectors actually distinguish among them.

The most eminent wartime situations which the 1943 silver war nickel commemorates combine the surrender of the German forces to the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, the appeasement of German AfrikaKorps to the Allies in North Africa, the defeat of the Germans by the Soviets in the Battle of Kursk and the invasion of Italy by the Allies.

About 119 million copies of the 1944 silver war coins were shaped at the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco mintage facilities. These coins were meant to commemorate the wartime events that came to pass in 1944. These included the victory of Allied forces in the Battle of Monte Cassino, the capture of Rome by the Allied forces, the liberation of Paris by the Allied forces and the Battle of bulge.




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