1944 Steel Canadian Nickel
The 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel is a Canadian nickel struck for circulation with 11.5 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1944
- Circulation mintage
- 11,532,784
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Plated steel
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel worth?
With 11.5 million made, the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel is common and worth face value in circulated condition. Only uncirculated coins with full luster, recognized varieties and genuine errors interest collectors.
What would make yours worth more:
- Sharp detail with original luster
- A recognized variety for the date
- Professional grading for a key date
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel rare?
- No. 11.5 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1944 Steel Canadian nickels were made?
- 11,532,784 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel made of?
- Plated steel. It weighs 4.54 g and measures 21.2 mm, with a 12-sided shape.
- Is the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel still legal tender?
- Yes. Canadian 5-cent coins are legal tender.
The 1944 nickel in context
By 1944 even brass was too precious for coins. Copper and zinc were needed for shell casings, wiring and other war materials, so the mint turned to steel. The Victory design stayed, but the 1944 nickel was struck on steel blanks plated with nickel and then chrome to protect them from rust and give them a bright, silvery look. The mint produced 11,532,784 of them. Steel was plentiful and cheap by comparison. It was a practical choice, if not a perfect one.
Steel coins brought new problems. The plating could wear through and once it did the steel underneath rusted in damp conditions. Many 1944 nickels have rust spots, pitting or dull patches as a result. The chrome finish also gave the coins a slightly different, harder shine than earlier nickels. The steel issue lasted only two years before the war ended and pure nickel returned. For collectors the 1944 is the first of a short metal type and a reminder of how deeply the war reached into everyday life, right down to the coins in a child's pocket.
How to recognize it
The reverse repeats Thomas Shingles' Victory design: a flaming torch over a large V, with CANADA, 5 CENTS and the date around it and the Morse code message We Win When We Work Willingly around the edge. The obverse is George VI by Paget. The coin has 12 sides and is made of steel plated with nickel and chrome. It looks bright and silvery when well preserved, almost like stainless steel. A magnet grabs it firmly, which separates it at once from the 1943 tombac coin of the same design. The 12-sided shape carried on from the tombac coins. The surface looks harder and cooler than tombac.
1944 Steel Canadian Nickel by the numbers
By the numbers, the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel ranks 86th lowest of 161 Canadian nickel dates and varieties from 1858 to 2024. The next scarcer is the 1991 Canadian Nickel (10.9 million); the next more common is the 1959 Canadian Nickel (11.6 million).
For scale, the most common is the 2008 Canadian Nickel with 278.5 million, about 24 times as many. The scarcest is the 1884 Canadian Nickel with 200,000, 58 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1944 output was 2.1 times fewer than 1943 and 1.6 times fewer than 1945.
Over the 1940s the Mint produced 127.6 million five cent coins across 12 dates and varieties; the 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel accounts for 9.0% of that.
What to check on your 1944 Steel Canadian Nickel
- Try a magnet. Plated steel is magnetic, so a genuine 1944 coin sticks; a silver one would not.
- Confirm the variety: chrome-plated steel wartime issue. Use a magnifier and compare with a reference picture before you assume you have the scarcer one.
- Never clean it. Rubbing or polishing leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Look at the high points of the portrait and the design. Wear there sets the grade. The grade in turn drives the value of older five cent coins.
The 1944 is common, but problem free examples are not. Look for an intact plating with no rust, pits or peeling. The Morse code should be readable all the way around. Store steel coins somewhere dry, since rust can start or spread even after a coin enters a collection. A bright, clean 1944 is a much better find than a spotted one. Do not try to remove rust yourself, since it usually damages the plating further. A coin with a little spotting is still a fine filler, but a fully plated piece is the one to keep.
Wartime tombac and steel nickels (1942 to 1945)
The Second World War took the nickel out of the nickel. The metal was vital for armor plate and munitions, so partway through 1942 the mint stopped using it. The first replacement was tombac, a brass of about 88 percent copper and 12 percent zinc. Because a brass coin could be confused with a worn cent, the new piece was made 12-sided. The first tombac coins of 1942 kept the beaver. In 1943 a new reverse by Thomas Shingles appeared: a flaming torch over a large V for Victory.
Around the rim of the Victory reverse runs a line of dots and dashes. It is Morse code for the slogan We Win When We Work Willingly. Copper and zinc were also needed for the war effort, so in 1944 and 1945 the Victory design was struck on steel plated with nickel and chrome. The 12-sided shape stayed. These coins look silvery like normal nickels but are clearly magnetic and tend to rust where the plating is broken.
The 1942 round pure nickel coin and the 1942 12-sided tombac coin are both common in worn condition, but they are worth separating since they are different metals. Tombac darkens to a brown that can look like copper; a coin that still shows bright brassy color is the one to want. The steel coins are hard to find without spots or pitting, so a clean, fully plated example deserves attention. Check that the Morse code on the Victory coins is sharp.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 5 cents |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1944 |
| Circulation mintage | 11,532,784 |
| Composition | Plated steel |
| Weight | 4.54 g |
| Diameter | 21.2 mm |
| Shape | 12-sided |
| Edge | Plain |
Frequently asked questions
Why are so many 1944 nickels rusty?
It was struck on steel plated with nickel and chrome. Where the plating has worn or cracked, moisture reaches the steel and rust forms. Spots are very common on this date, so clean examples are the ones to keep.
How is the 1944 different from the 1943 Victory nickel?
Both have the Victory torch design, but the 1943 is brass colored tombac and the 1944 is silvery chrome-plated steel. The 1944 sticks to a magnet; the 1943 does not.
Mintage figures: Nickel (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.