Assaying Silver / War Nickel Weight Variation

mnemtsas2

I've just bought an Australian 1944S (San Francisco) struck shilling on an underweight planchet, pic below. Mass is 4.94g, which is remarkably close to the war nickel mass of 5g. Does anyone know the mass variation allowable for war nickels? Also, anyone know of a way to non destructively assay the fineness of the silver in a coin? Australian silver of the period was sterling while war nickels were 35%. Any help would be appreciated.

Lancastercoin

Many scrap metal buyers have a handheld XRF spectrometer that can give you a complete surface composition without affecting the surfaces at all. Here in Ft. Collins, CO the local scrap metal (iron/aluminum/copper/etc) place does it for me at $5 a go. If you have a gold refinery in your area they may have such a machine as well.

CaptHenway

4.94 grams would be within the weight tolerance of a wartime nickel. However, there are other possibilities.

In 1944 San Francisco also did a Philippine 5 Centavos made of 65% Copper, 23% Zinc and 12% Nickel that weighed 4.9 grams and was 19 mm when struck.

Also, there was an El Salvador 5 Centavos made of 70% copper, 18% silver and 12% Nickel that weighed 5.0 grams and was 23.0 mm when struck.

The shilling should be 23.8 mm. Looking at your piece and guaging by eye how much smaller the piece is than a normal piece, allowing for expansion during strike, I would say that the U.S. wartime nickel planchet is the most likely planchet. Can you do a specific gravity on it and post the results?

TD