1943 S war nickel. 1 1

[Rykel]

Came across some old nickels while back and I'm checking them out again. I was wondering about this one. Is it still valuable without the full steps? 

 

[Greenstang]

In that condition, the value would be in its 35% silver content.

[Sandon]

   "Full steps" terminology generally applies to uncirculated Jefferson nickels, many of which, especially those dated from 1950 to 1970, were not sufficiently well struck to show at least five of the steps on Monticello.  NGC has certified a few About Uncirculated pieces as having 5 or 6 full steps (a waste of grading fees), but they are unpriced in the NGC Price Guide and other price guides. The 1943-S wartime composition example (35% silver) shown here grades no better than Extremely Fine, which lists $1.50 In Coin World and $2 in the NGC Price Guide. It is doubtful that a dealer would pay more than its silver value ($1.31 today), probably less.

[powermad5000]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:52 AM, Sandon said:

NGC has certified a few About Uncirculated pieces as having 5 or 6 full steps (a waste of grading fees)

I was unable to locate any of these graded in AU with either 5 or 6 steps in NGC CoinExplorer. Where did you find that figure at? Also, there is no additional charge for the FS designation when submitting nickels to NGC. They check automatically without charging a fee.

I agree this coin is in the XF range and is currently price guide for $2 in that condition. I also agree a dealer would only give less than melt.

I would put this coin into an album.

[Sandon]

On 10/30/2023 at 1:49 PM, powermad5000 said:

I was unable to locate any of these graded in AU with either 5 or 6 steps in NGC CoinExplorer.

    I looked in the NGC Census, not the NGC Coin Explorer, and thought I saw several 5FS and 6FS designations for coins in the AU 53-58 range, which surprised me. I don't see them now. Sometimes I've had trouble loading pages from the census, and the lines and columns "hang up" and don't line up properly.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Sandon

[powermad5000]

On 10/30/2023 at 1:16 PM, Sandon said:

Sometimes I've had trouble loading pages from the census, and the lines and columns "hang up" and don't line up properly.

I don't know if it is trouble with our devices necessarily because I have had the columns not line up sometimes either. I think that is a glitch in the page layout and something NGC needs to fix on their end. I was just wondering because I had to get all the way to MS 63 to find a 5FS in the census. These coins had strike problems to begin with and I figured anything in AU would definitely not have any full steps.

[dprince1138]

Sheldon coin grading scale - Wikipedia

NGC Coin Price Guide and Values | NGC

There is most likely more in depth information in other threads as well as the google engine,

[Coinbuf]

The steps are irrelevant as this is a well circulated coin and the value is tied to the silver content used in the war years for nickel production.   Also, the link posted by @dprince1138 with regards to the NGC coin price guide is useless to you because your coin is not graded by a TPG like NGC, the price values in the NGC coin price guide are for coins that are graded not raw (ungraded) coins as you have.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Coinbuf

[Lem E]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:52 AM, Sandon said:

NGC has certified a few About Uncirculated pieces as having 5 or 6 full steps

Last time I checked there were around 35 examples across all years and grades AU-58 and lower with a full step designation in the NGC census. I have 2 of them in my collection. One is a 1941 D AU-58 6FS and the other is a 1989 P AU-58 5 FS. I think they were $30 for the 41 and $20 for the 89. I bought them as curiosity pieces because, at the time, I thought that they had to be mint state to get a FS designation. This holds true ATS but NGC will give anything that has full steps the designation. 

[powermad5000]

@Lem E I was looking at the census specifically for the 1943 S which had 0 in AU with FS. Hopefully that clarifies my statement.