1945 Jefferson War Nickel - S Mark - PCGS 66

The Last Silver WWII Nickel Ever Made

Every nation was faced with a shortage of wartime materials during WWII, and the United States of America was no exception.

The two largest shortages we faced were of copper and nickel, two materials integral to the production of our one-cent and five-cent coinage denominations.

In response to this, the United States Mint decided to change the metal composition of the coins for the duration of the War. The original copper cents would become the well known, single-year-of-issue, 1943 Steel Cents, and the Nickel would turn into something truly beloved by collectors -- the Silver Wartime Nickels.

Produced from 1942 to 1945, a total of 11 Silver Nickels were produced at all three major United States Mints: Philadelphia, Denver, and the Old Granite Lady in San Francisco. To help tell the Silver Nickels and their regular counterparts apart, the Mint altered the design slightly. They moved the placement of the mint mark from below the coin's year to above the dome of Monticello.

Once the war ended, they switched back to their initial nickel based composition and retired the Silver Nickels and their special mint mark locations -- making these coins the only ones of their kind in the history of the United States Mint!

In 1945, the San Francisco Mint would strike a total of 58,939,000 total Silver War Nickels.

In this grade (as of 03-07-2024) PCGS has certified just 2,498 total coins in this grade or higher!

That is just 1 in every 23,594 coins struck -- just 0.004% of the entire mintage!

Each coin will arrive certified by PCGS as being in MS66 condition