Silver nickels from two countries, congrats! One of these days I hope to find a Canadian silver.
Johnny, US silver nickels are 35% silver. The rest is mostly copper with a little bit of manganese, that's why they corrode so much in the ground.
In circulation, silver nickels always had a dark grey look to them. Their mintages were high, so they were quite common in circulation until 90% silver switched to clad in 1965. Even for a number of years after that when it became unusual to find 90% silver coins in circulation, war nickels were still relatively easy to find.
They made them from 1942-1945 because nickel was needed for the war effort. They also made regular composition nickels for part of 1942 before they switched over to the silver ones.
Even corroded, they still look different coming out of the ground than the usual nickel. And they have that big mintmark over Monticello on the reverse. Including a P for the Philadelphia mint which is unusual because every other US coin I can think of minted in Philadelphia has no mintmark...if you get a US coin with no mintmark, it was minted in Philly.
I have found a couple silver nickels that ID'd like a normal nickel, but most that I have found with the AT Pro ID higher with a fair amount of bounce.
Valuewise, they are a bullion coin, so when I get a badly corroded one I carefully soak it in lemon juice for a few minutes. A quick soak takes a lot of the corrosion off and I think it makes the coin look better, but if you let it sit too long in the LJ the coin gets an unattractive washed out look.
