I recently pulled a couple of 1942 nickels out of circulation. How do you tell if they are made of the silver alloy?
The War Time Nickel's had the mint mark in large print above Monticello. If it is not there than it is not Silver. The reason for this mint mark was so that the mint could pull the silver nickel back out of circulation when the war was over and they could go back to using copper.
And remember that the war nickels and regular nickels were only both minted at the Philadelphia mint. The Denver mint only produced standard CuNi nickels and the San Francisco mint only produced war nickels. Here are some photos to show you the difference between a standard 1942 and a 1942 war nickel. The standard 1942 has no mintmark as was common for Philadelphia coins. Standard 1942 Jefferson Nickel 1942-P Jefferson War Nickel
Well darn i thought if i sat on it and shouted HI HO SILVER and it moved then it would be silver. Great reply Lehigh96 and explaned to where even i could understand.
For whatever reason, the 42-P is actually very difficult to locate with rainbow toning. Even my registry example is white.
Another method would be to melt the coin and pour into a mold that is in the shape of a bullet (caliber of own preference). Next find yourself an unsuspecting werewolf, sneak up behind him and shoot him in the back. If the werewolf dies then you know you have (I mean had) a silver nickel. If the werewolf turns around and says "Ouch that kinda hurt, why did you do that" then you have (err had) a nickel made of nickel. The other methods explained by previous posters would also work, the choice is yours.
