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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;johnmilton, post: 25402345, member: 101855&quot;]No, you are not seeing things. The metallic composition of a nickel is 88% copper and 12% nickel. What you see is an improper mix of the two metals which left the copper showing. </p><p><br /></p><p>The mint has had a hard time with striking nickels for well over a century. The people who worked at the mint called it, &quot;The devil&#039;s copper.&quot; It was hard to strike and chewed up dies. It was hard to mix, and created more than it&#039;s share defective planchets and laminations. </p><p><br /></p><p>The hardness of the alloy resulted in the early dropping of the rays on the Shield Nickel. Liberty Nickels frequently had lightly struck areas. The Buffalo Nickel design was dropped after about 25 years, because the mint system could not strike the motif consistently well. Dealers and collectors have had fun with &quot;full step Jefferson Nickels.&quot; I hope this gives you some background about why some nickel date and mint mark combinations are hard to find nice.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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