The penny is now just zinc covered with 2.5% copper since about 1982, but the nickel's composition has remained 25% Ni, 75% Cu. In WWII, the nickel coin had silver and manganese added to free up nickel metal for wartime production, but that ended in 1945.
I don't have a problem with the nickel stripping blue off guns.
Earlier this year, the melt value of a nickel coin was closing in on 8 cents, which is quite a premium over face value.
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