Coin specifications and design
Design identification
Obverse: Thomas Jefferson portrait.
Reverse: Monticello, with a large mint mark above the dome on wartime silver issues.
U.S. Mint coin reference
1942-1945 Jefferson Wartime Nickel
Jefferson Wartime Nickel 1942-1945 silver alloy wartime nickel guide.
Jefferson Wartime Nickel history
During World War II, nickel was considered strategically important for military production, so the Mint temporarily changed the five-cent coin’s alloy. From part of 1942 through 1945, Jefferson nickels were made with 35% silver along with copper and manganese. To make the new composition easy to identify, a large mintmark was placed above Monticello; Philadelphia coins used a P mintmark for the first time on a regular U.S. coin. The normal copper-nickel alloy returned in 1946.