Five Cents (Nickel Brass), Coin Type from British Honduras - detailed information

The impact of World War II on metal requirements and availability led to some changes in coinage alloys in 1942 (and even experiments with "the new plastic materials to save metal").

The Royal Mint reported: "As the Japanese invasion threatened a substantial portion of the world's tin supply, consideration was given to methods of reducing the Mint's requirements of that metal for coinage". For many countries that employed the Royal Mint in London for their coinage needs, the bronze issues were changed to a new alloy containing 0.5% tin. At the same time nickel was becomming an important war effort material, some countries changed their cupro-nickel coinages for the new bronze alloy while for British Honduras the change was to a nickel brass, an alloy of 79% copper, 20% zinc and 1% nickel.