5 Cents - George VI (Victory; tombac)

The 1943 Canadian five-cent coin, colloquially known as the Victory nickel, was born out of the metal shortages necessitated by World War II. As nickel was a critical component in the production of armor plating and munitions, the Royal Canadian Mint transitioned to a tombac alloy—a mixture of copper and zinc—to conserve strategic resources. This shift resulted in the coin's distinctive brownish-gold appearance, which stood in stark contrast to the standard nickel-based coinage of the era.

The coin's reverse was designed by Thomas Shingles, a master engraver at the Royal Canadian Mint, who sought to capture the spirit of the Allied war effort. His design features the letter 'V' for victory, superimposed over a torch, with the Morse code translation for 'V'—three dots and a dash—encoded into the design. Surrounded by the phrase 'We Win As One We Serve As One' in both English and international Morse code, the design was intended to serve as a patriotic morale booster during the height of the global conflict.