Excuse me nickel, but have you seen copper?

[John_doe]

Okay so I aquired a certain nickel that had been cut in half, only to find no red stuff. Can someone shed some light as to why I see NO copper in a coin that is supposed to be 75% copper composition.

[natsb88]

Nickels are made of a consistent alloy of 25% nickel and 75% copper. They are not layered like quarters, dimes, etc. are.

[John_doe]

Nickels are made of a consistent alloy of 25% nickel and 75% copper. They are not layered like quarters, dimes, etc. are.

I see..... Wouldn't the coin have a considerable amount of red tint to it if it was composed of 75% copper? I'm sorry this probably seems like a really dumb thread. I was just unsure as to how they did that.

[John_doe]

For instance, brass is a copper alloy but you can still tell that there is copper used.

[68Camaro]

For instance, brass is a copper alloy but you can still tell that there is copper used.

I don't know the physics of it at the atomic level, but in this alloy the nickel dominates the color, even though only at 25% of the mass. They picked this alloy for a reason...

[didou]

You can go up to 84% copper / 16% nickel and it's still silver color only with a very small yellow tint. I think it's the higher you can get to still have a silver color.
If you increase the copper content it never turn red, as 68C said, nickels dominate the color and it turn yellow.