NGC Registry Featured Set: Full Step War Nickel Set

This month’s set is Mcpix’s top-ranked TWM Full Step War Nickel Set. The set contains the 11 regular silver war nickels issued 1942-1945 in addition to seven of the most outstanding varieties such as the 1943/2-P, 1943-P “alligator eye” and the 1945-P doubled die reverse. Even though this set category has nearly 100 competitors, Mcpix has the only 100% complete set.

One of the most significant war nickel varieties, this 1945-P DDR shows dramatic doubling on MONTICELLO and CENTS. Mcpix's colorful example graded NGC MS 67 Click images to enlarge

Mcpix’s set contains coins graded as high as MS 68, with all but three having five or six full steps. A photographer by trade, Mcpix has included clear photos of each coin and painstakingly captured several of the coins’ vibrant toning, including the deep purple crescents on the 1945-S.

Mcpix's set contains many vibrantly toned coins, including this 1945-S (NGC MS 67 5FS) Click images to enlarge

It took four years and various turns of fortune to assemble the set. Mcpix missed out on the 1944-S (NGC MS 68 5FS) at the last minute in an auction. The purchaser was actually a local dealer obtaining the coin for a client. When the client backed out, the enterprising dealer remembered Mcpix collected the series and offered it to a surprised Mcpix. With another coin, Mcpix had the good luck to find three 1945 P/P/P TRD coins raw, but his top pick garnered a details grade and he spotted the few hairlines afterwards. Fortune smiled again on Mcpix, however, when he later submitted a 1943/2, already graded MS 64 FS by ANACS, and got an NGC MS 65 5FS.

Collectors have always been intrigued by the silver nickel as it was a war-time need for nickel that led to the substitution of silver and manganese. But Mcpix’s interest is also personal. His father was a ball turret gunner on a B-24 bomber (piloted by the future senator and 1972 presidential nominee George McGovern) during World War II, and Mcpix grew up around a lot of veterans.

“Many of my father’s friends fought as well. One survived D-Day, another Iwo Jima. They were my role models,” Mcpix wrote. “I collect these war nickels to remind myself of them.”

As a child, Mcpix filled Whitman albums with coins from rolls his father brought home from the bank. He spent hours carefully inspecting coins with a magnifying glass. His interest went dormant until the 1980s, when he was hired to shoot a Brasher Doubloon purchased by Sidney Smith & Sons.

“My love of coins came rushing back and continues to this day,” Mcpix wrote.

Mcpix began collecting Franklin halves, but later sold his full set to focus on the war nickels and varieties. Like all collectors, Mcpix made some mistakes and got excited about mechanical doubling, the pyrite or cubic zirconia of doubled dies. With help from resources such as CONECA (The Combined Organization of Numismatic Error Collectors of America), he learned to distinguish true doubled dies and other varieties and how to use diagnostics to help.

“Adding varieties to your collection gives you additional treasures to search for,” Mcpix wrote. “Every time you find one it gives you such a feeling of satisfaction.”

Mcpix recently received back from grading a 1943-P/P VP-011 Top Pop coin found in a BU roll. That coin isn’t required for his NGC Registry set, but he was excited to find it and has since requested an NGC Registry set of all the Jefferson war nickel varieties. That would be quite a mountain, as NGC’s VarietyPlus catalog includes nearly 70 listings for the silver Jefferson nickels!

The NGC Registry is a free online platform where collectors register and display their certified coins and can compete against other collectors around the world for recognition and prizes. The NGC Registry continues to be the world’s most comprehensive online coin collecting platform thanks to you, our valued collectors. This popular resource now boasts nearly 30,000 users, 289,000+ registered sets and nearly 1.6 million registered coins. In January of 2023, we awarded more than $35,000 in prizes — the highest prize value awarded yet! Get ready for the 2023 awards.

Would you like your set to be featured in a future article? 100% completion in a set is not always feasible. Perhaps, we will choose someone whose set has a personal story behind it or some interesting historical facts. We are looking for those sets where someone has taken the time to make the set unique and a reflection of his/her personal collecting style. It may be your set! Stay tuned.

The NGC Registry team is here to help. Questions or comments? Go to the NGC Registry Chat Boards.