Bill Fivaz

There are two excellent sites on YouTube that offer numismatic information programs that I know you will enjoy. I visit them daily and always come away with increased knowledge in many phases of the hobby. I strongly suggest that you visit both..

One is hosted by Ben (“The Coin Geek”) who owns Old Pueblo Coin shop in Tucson, Arizona, and the other is Portsmouth Coin and Currency, owned by Daniel Malone in Portsmouth, Ohio. Daniel also has a feature called CoinHELPU in which he answers questions about numismatics which is outstanding.

A few weeks ago, Daniel presented a program on gold counterfeits and mentioned the famous “Omega” $20 High Relief St. Gaudens gold coin. I happen to own one of these rare counterfeits and sent it to Daniel for him to photograph and produce a separate video. He did, and his video is above. Enjoy!

The World War II years were difficult years historically, but they were also incredibly important years numismatically. During the 1942-1945 span, some of the most significant ( and valuable) coin rarities were minted, possibly due in part to the loss of experienced workers at the U.S. Mint to the service.

Arguably, there were more interesting and collectible coins struck during this 4 year period than at any other similar time span in the history of the mint. This article presents the most popular of those, but many more could certainly be included. Here is a list of the cents, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars that are the most important, several of which are extremely rare. Many can still be cherrypicked by the astute collector.

Coins to look for:

Cents

• 1943 Copper ( all 3 mints)
• 1943-D/D Repunched Mintmark * 1943/2-S Overdate
• 1944 Steel ( all 3 mints)
• 1944-D/S Overmintmark

Nickels

• 1942-D/Horiz. D
• 194 3/2-P Overdate
• 1943-P Doub. Die Obv.(eye)
• 1945-P Doub. Die Rev.
• 1945-S Full Steps

Dimes

• 1942/1-P Overdate
• 1942/2-D Overdate
• 1945-P Full Bands

Quarters

• 1942-D Doubled Die Obverse
• 1942-D Doubled Die Reverse
• 1943-S Doubled Die Obverse

Halves

• 1942-P Doubled Die Reverse

From the above list, your best chance of finding a collectible coin probably lies in the Jefferson nickel series. Check all Wartime nickel coins carefully for any varieties and the 1944-S and especially the 1945-S issues for Full Step pieces.