75% copper 25% nickel. It's actually the same composition used today. If you were able to bury a 2008 nickel for 70+ years it would come out just as ugly
Yep, different soils can be a problem, some areas, Buffalo's come out looking relatively ok...others, they get eaten. The red ones are fairly common after a while in certain soils. HH RickO
I haven't found too many Buff's, but yep, they come out nice and brown looking. What I should do is practice with some Jeff's that have been in the ground a bit and turned that funky brown. For now I just tumble them as I don't care how scratched up they may get. I should try some different, gentler cleaning techniques so if I ever do get another buff, V, etc I have a safer method of trying to clean them (assuming they are not key dates of course!).
The 50 and 100 yens coins in Japan are roughly the same composition.
10-15 years in the ground ( less if no grass above ) and they are the same reddish hue as the old Indian nickels. The long in the dirt ones are even redder.
When I clean them I can easily see the difference. Since they are just modern clad to me I use a brass brush. The new drops lose their red quickly and take just a few strokes to return to bright spendable condition.
The long in the soil ones will eventually lose their red to the brush but the surfaces are dull and pitted.