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It seems that on ebay silver nickels usually sell below melt value, but silver dimes and quarters are typically at or slightly above melt. Any ideas?

I think you'll find the answer in the metal composition. It includes manganese, this component makes it hard to extract the pure silver. Market Harmony explained it in a post awhile back.

I dont know

Yep, that sums it up pretty well. They are the Rodney Dangerfields of ag coin. I found 2 tonight and my pulse barely quickened.

Oh ok. I always wondered that too.

I love them. I think they're just cool.

I like finding war nickels just because of the history and metal content!

I'm more elated when finding a buffalo, and that is my primary goal when going through a box. Have yet to find a V in circulation. You can bet your boots I'd be skipping around the house when that find is made.

Also there is a higher percentage in circulation. This arguement can also go with the copper cent not selling at melt.


Time will have it's way. They will both exceed expectations with time.


Sort! Sort! Sort!

red-headed step children of silver coins. They're the least pure and hard to melt down! I do not own any but there are enough people out there that they're failry liquid as an asset anyways...

I've always liked Warnix, too, but agree that they're sort of a second tier silver collectible. Part of the reason (in addition to the metallic composition) is they don't look good even after a short time in circulation. They become dark and even black.

I remember searching rolls in the mid-late 1960s. I usually saved them from rolls, but they heavily worn or discolored ones were sent back into circulation. The AU to BU ones really look sharp, though and I wish I had more. In the late 1970s silver blast-off, I remember buying 3 rolls of Warnix for $80. I regretted that purchase for the longest time as silver crashed shortly afterwards. Funny how one seemingly bad purchase can gnaw at you for quite awhile.

In the recent silver run up to $50, it slayed me that melt was over $2.00 EACH. I still find that amazing. My first love is US 90% and it's much easier to understand why a common date circ Franklin half would melt at $15.

Bring on the Warnix, though. I consider it a great find anymore to encounter one in a roll search or receive it handed back in change.

It may be harder for the average person to get the silver from nickels but it is just another step for a professional smelter to do it. Having worked in a smelting plant at one point before I retired, I have seen what is involved. They will smelt for silver first and then resmelt that dross for copper. If he bought the metal for silver value alone, the copper is a bonus that he didn't have to pay for other than the smelting cost.
The maganese will probably not be worth going after.

Sooo... any war nickels are welcome here. I am presently keeping an eye on an ebay item of 1 roll with a buy it now of 69.00 w/4.00 shipping. (melt as of this AM - 79.76)

I think it is partially due to the idea that it was a change in composition due to extreme circumstance (WWII)

In Canada, we changed our WWII to copperzinc, and then later chrome plated steel. Which also doesn't gain much respect. A nickel is supposed to be at least partially nickel.

That the US was so desperate for nickel that they replaced it with silver (Nickel being worth more than Silver for those four years) does say something about the price of nickel nowadays though. The US holds no strategic reserve of silver or nickel, but they do hold quite a bit of gold reserves.

It would be interesting to see nickel occasionally surpass the value of silver like it has done in the past. $40 an ounce nickel anyone?

ZenOps wrote:I think it is partially due to the idea that it was a change in composition due to extreme circumstance (WWII)

In Canada, we changed our WWII to copperzinc, and then later chrome plated steel. Which also doesn't gain much respect. A nickel is supposed to be at least partially nickel.

That the US was so desperate for nickel that they replaced it with silver (Nickel being worth more than Silver for those four years) does say something about the price of nickel nowadays though. The US holds no strategic reserve of silver or nickel, but they do hold quite a bit of gold reserves.

It would be interesting to see nickel occasionally surpass the value of silver like it has done in the past. $40 an ounce nickel anyone?

My nickel stack would be worth seven figures!!

My foray into old silver coinage was War Nickels at $2.50 under spot from APMEX. Got a bag of dimes, too. Absolutely love both. I expect the greater likelihood over time, as silver appreciates, is for a premium to develop in the sub-1 oz. coins. Even if the relative lack of premium simply holds constant, though, they'll be fine and are just a lot of fun to own, even when worn and blackened.

Incidentally, speaking of relative metal pricings, it does strike me as slightly odd that zinc is mined in smaller quantities than copper, but is 1/4th the price. Or that nickel is mined at 1/10th the quantity of copper, but is only 2.5x the price of copper. I'm sure it all comes down to demand relative to those quantities, but it's just interesting to note. If the need for Nickel or Zinc rises for any reason, newer Pennies and Nickels could get more interesting.

Oh, and I doubt nickel would ever stay above the price of silver for long, as there is 70 times as much mined every year.

I don't know if nickel was worth more than silver in "dollar terms" that you could actually
capture. Simply nickel was more important _strategically_ than silver and there are only
limited amounts mined or recycled so a small bit extra by conserving one substitutable
use that was under governement control anyways made a huge difference in whether
the military did or did not have what they needed.

So I wouldn't count on war profiteering here. ^_-

I always thought the silver:nickel ratio was off.

In Canada where we produce 30% of the worlds nickel and our metal dollar evolved like this (not counting non circulating commemoratives):

1935–1967 23.33 grams 36.00 mm 80% silver, 20% copper
1968–1986 15.62 grams 32.13 mm 99.9% nickel
1987-2010 7.00 grams 26.5 mm 91.5% nickel
2011 less than 7 grams 26.5 mm cupronickel plated steel?

http://www.mint.ca/store/news/federal-b ... t+the+Mint

That there was a shortage in 2007 (punching the price up to $23/pound) and that we didn't even try to maintain the size or weight of the original silver dollar when the switchover was made in 1967 to 1968 - tells me that there is nowhere near as much free nickel out there as otherwise would be assumed. Even with active alloy recovery, we have totally given up on nickel for the "Loonie" and "Toonie" in 2011.

And if we don't have enough nickel for a 7 gram dollar coin circulated to 30 million people, then either the ratios are wrong, or there is an alien somewhere sucking up all the nickel and pulling it into space

I would otherwise blame the US for taking 1.25 grams for every US nickel.

I get the feeling that a lot of nickel was thrown out in a ratio of 5% to iron in many landfills (much more than silver was thrown away)

The manganese is why they get no respect. Noxious and difficult to separate if you were to ever want to melt.

I don't look at coinage in terms of potentially melting it--for me it's more about liquidity for trade in a SHTF situation. And war nickels have more silver per unit face value than 90% US. 2 war nickels contain 0.1125 OZT, while one Rosie or Merc has only 0.0723 OZT.

coincrazy wrote:I like finding war nickels just because of the history and metal content!

I'm more elated when finding a buffalo, and that is my primary goal when going through a box. Have yet to find a V in circulation. You can bet your boots I'd be skipping around the house when that find is made.

I once picked up a box of nickels for something new to sort, shunked. Second box, trifecta! Silver nickel, buffalo, and a V. I have not sorted since then. No need to ruin the magic.

Seriously! In all honesty since I started sorting coins myself (in earnest, I've always kept an eye out to find silver) the war nickels have been some of the best! It's a way better percent for me so far than any other silver coins, mainly because nobody thinks of it with nickels. Plus the whole WWII thing is kinda cool too

I'll take all the war nickels I can find personally. Silver is silver, in fact I'm headed to ebay right now.

Edit; I have been trolling ebay all day and cannot find them selling for much less than spot. Maybe right at spot and everything is just over, but nothing much less. Although I did buy a war nickel for $1.75, but it was only a single and nothing else close.

i found 2 silver US nickels in a Canadian nickel bag yesterday! I was like WTF!

I actually found a 45 warnik at my wifes grandfathers house this weekend. Before the drop in silver, in the last couple days, I was buying them for $1.60-1.65 on ebay-shipped. They were at 1.91 at that time and are still at 1.75. I'll take all that I find for that price. It does take time though, possibly a few hours a day depending on when the auctions are ending.