I was lucky enough to find 15 war nickels today in 5 CWR! Lots of them have a gold toning to them - is this natural, or could they be *gulp* fake?? I'll try to get better photos of the color later tonight - does anyone else have gold toned WNs??
Looks good to me. After lots of wear, they should begin to turn a muddy grey because of the manganese in them. The one in your hand is about an XF, maybe an AU example. Nice find tho, a $100 box usually yields about one or two of them.
Does this mean that the newer dollar coins will turn that color if they actually circulate? They have a lower % manganese, but war nickels' 9% isn't much. I always thought they turned that color because of the silver and overall strange alloy. Silver coins get grey after circulating for a while.
Thanks for the responses! They're more gold than grey - I'm used to seeing the grey, almost black ones too... but these are weirdly goldish... I'll get some better photos later
The manganese alloy is a direct catalyst to the dark grey toning to circulated war nickels. Since the alloy was mixed with the silver and other alloys for these years, that is the result that treasure seekers get. As opposed to the modern dollars where the manganese is an inner layer within the coin and not a mix in with the other alloys like a melting pot. This is why roll searchers can still find plenty of war nickels even in pocket change or individual rolls. The general public scooping up 90% silver in rolls don't really pay attention to the war nickels. Because it either hasn't caught on or people just don't know about them. But its only a matter of time when it catches on to those type of searchers.
Quite common for better-condition lightly circulated war nickels to tone golden in color. I've found plenty.
I like them toned that color. And great find! I haven't found one in probably a year or more. Been forever.
