Hello, I have an 1859 Canada One Cent and how do you determine if the coin is either bronze or brass? Also, does the metals determine the value of the coin and were there mint errors? I would appreciate if someone could tell me the value of the coin. Attached are some pictures. Thanks, Steve
The 1859 was, by far, the highest minted number coin in the Victoria series... 10 million. It is the commonist that you will find of any date. They were bronze and that is what yours appears to be. Both the bronze and brass(very rare) examples appear nearly identical and it takes an expert to tell the two apart. There are less than a handful of brass ones known. Yours appears bronze and has been cleaned. Worth anywhere from $2-$10 depending on grade if not a scarcer variety. The 2011 edition (65th) edition of Charlton's Canada coin guide has the Victoria Large Cent varieties listed in the back (a very small sample of 80 realtively well-known ones). There are probably close to 1000 varieties of the 1859 counting various die marriages(Obv vs Rev). They are nice, very interesting coins, but not worth much.
