The copper-silver-manganese alloy was quite soft in relation to the pre-war composition, and this both increased the useful life of dies and the percentage of sharply struck coins. Thus, most 1942 S nickels are quite pleasing to the eye, and the percentage of 5FS and 6FS coins is higher than usual for an S-Mint nickel. On the down side, all wartime composition issues wore very quickly in circulation while simultaneously becoming quite dark due to the low fineness of the silver.
Re-punched mintmark (RPM) varieties are numerous, but none of them are particularly attractive to non-specialists.
Silver nickels are distinguished by a slightly different coloration than ordinary nickels and by the appearance of a large mintmark above Monticello's dome on the reverse side of the coin. The marks are "S" for the San Francisco mint, "D" for the Denver mint and "P' to indicate production at the Philadelphia mint.
Mintage:
| Philadelphia | Denver | Silver P | Silver S |
| 49,818,600 | 13,938,000 | 57,900,600 | 32,900,000 |