Wrong Planchet Nickels, how do you tell????

kryptonitecomics

The article about the 1946 Nickel on a silver planchet in the October 2002 issue of coins got me thinking......Is there a way, other than sending the coin to someone for authentication, to determine if a nickel is on the wrong planchet. I have a 1948-D Nickel in circulated condition that looks identical to my darkly toned war nickels. My first inclanation is since they stopped using the silver planchets in 1945, the odds that I would have a coin dated 1948 actually on a silver planchet, is probably somewhere around no chance and a snowballs chance is h_ll. Is there a way to tell without having the coin authenticated?????


Thanks

Spinynorman

A silver nickel will sound slightly different (higher pitch) than a nickel nickel if you let it fall from it's edge and come to rest.

Coulport

1) Place coin in 50 ml. nitric acid.
2) After reaction ceases, add equal amount of distilled water.
3) Prepare 5% solution of NaCl in distilled water.
4) Pour 10 ml of salt solution in the acid container.
5) A white flocculent material denotes silver chloride.
6) Coin contained silver per this test.

Or, have someone at a lab do an X-ray diffraction for silver content.

Dog97

I don't know nothing about chemistry so I would just send it to my old buddy Fred Weinberg.

Bikingnut

What about the weight? Wouldn't the weight of the silver planchet be a little different?

Dog97

War nickels weigh the same as nickel nickels.

Conder101

Take it to your local high school chemistry class and get the teacher or one of the student to run a specific gravity test on it It won't hurt the coin and it will be a clear indication. A silver nickel has a SG of 9.25 and a regular nickel is 8.92 They are close together but if they run the test a couple of times it should be clear which it is. If you were close by I'd do it for you. It isn't difficult.