Quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies are all a part of our daily and constant purchase transactions in the united states when paying with cash. Let's say you go to your local market or grocery store and when you go to pay at the cash register the cashier tells you your total is $19.64(see what I did there?). You take a $20 fiat banknote out of your wallet and hand it to the cashier and in exchange they give you one quarter, a dime and a penny as your change. 99% of people probably throw that change in their pocket/purse, bring it home to roll and return to the bank or leave it in their car for tolls in the future while driving. Not many actually take the time to look at what they have received because they are unaware of what real wealth is. I personally see it here and there as I currently work at a supermarket. Occasionally when I am not stocking and I am on the registers cashing out customers I will get that one lady that always pays in exact change. Just yesterday while at work I was cashing out a woman and when I told her what the total was of course she goes diving in her purse for the exact change. I personally don't mind. She may be slowing down the process of getting customers out of the store in an efficient time, but you never know what she may give you. She hands me $17 in fiat banknotes, and then 16 cents worth of change. A dirty dime, a nickel, and a shiny 2016 worthless penny. The nickel she handed me immediately caught my eye. It was a 1942 silver war nickel. This was my second one this week alone. During World War II, from 1942-1945 nickels were made of 35% silver, 56% copper, and 9% manganese. The presence of actual nickel in these coins were taken out of the equation solely to ration commodities for the war. Nickel was in high demand for armor plating during this time frame. The majority of people are unaware of that, along with other coins that had silver content from 1964 and prior. Immediately and discreetly I put the nickel aside, swapped it out with my seperate change and later on put the nickel into my pocket. Once business slowed down I showed one of the girls I was working with what I found. "Look at this silver nickel I just got while cashing" I said to her. She replied "What do you mean, nickels aren't made of silver". Her response right there explains my point precisely and sums up the lack of knowledge that the vast majority of our population has when it comes to the topic. Even though the melt value of silver content in these war nickels is roughly $1.00 currently, it is still real constitutional wealth. I have found 3 while at work so far when keeping an eye out. I also received one as a gift from my father he found while going through his change. If you ever want to figure out the content of a coin and the value behind it head over to www.coinflation.com and click on coin calculators. The weight in silver of each war nickel is 0.0563 troy ounces. It may seem very minuscule but again, I found it for free. Regardless of size and stature, silver is silver. My four war nickels come to a weight of 0.2251 troy ounces of silver. That is over a fifth of a troy ounce of silver. When the clock strikes midnight and god forbid the economy collapses, those four nickels can help feed my family and I because they are real constitutional and biblical forms of currency. Always keep an eye out when going through your change or when you receive a quarter, dime or a nickel. You never know what you may find and what true value you have acquired.
