When I was 11, I found a Buffalo Nickel in the horse pasture behind our
house. It was the first Buffalo Nickel I had ever seen. A 1937 D (four leg),
with an almost chocolate brown color. I knew nothing of old nickels, but
marveled at the beauty of the old coin. From that day on my interest grew
in Metal Detecting for old lost coins. I later learned from a picture on a coin magazine and through my added interest in the beautifully crafted coin that I apparently had the only brown
one. As the years went by (and after I bought my first metal detector) I
discovered that all nickels came out of the ground black, brown, and even
sometimes red. Nickels are made from the metal nickel, and while nickel is far more
durable than silver or copper, it corrodes much more easily.
However not every Buffalo nickel with color is lost and found.
When nickels are exposed to air, tobacco, or other adverse storage
conditions, it can add quite a variety of colors to an already interesting
Buffalo.