I would like to know how you tell the difference between a copper civil war token and a bronze one of the type and Fuld numbers?
http://www.cwtsociety.com/rarity.shtml Check out the above page from the Civil War Token Society - great info about composition. It appears that there is no recognized "bronze" for CWT - brass is listed, as is copper. The only alloy that I am familiar with is cupro-nickel, similar to cents of the era, which is "d" on a Fuld number.
RXF gun, about the only sure way. Copper, brass or bronze to me are all the same metal without the XRF readout. Color is NOT definitive.
So I'm wondering if or does copper, brass, and bronze all three turn brown or does brass keep its yellowish red color with age? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It would all depend on what the exact composition of the brass is. For example go look at some Lincoln cents made between 1963 and 1981. You will see all different colors and shades of red or brown. All these coins are made of brass, 95% copper 5% zinc. As the amount of zinc in the alloy increases the likely hood of it retaining a yellow color increases. But to get true yellow brass color you have to start approaching 25% zinc. But ANY copper zinc alloy that doesn't contain tin is technically a brass, and brass coinage alloys come with all kinds of different compositions. Then you have to worry about cleaning. Cleaned copper, bronze and brass all tend to have the same appearance as well. So visually I consider them all to be the same composition.
My reason for asking was I have CWT that is listed as R1 in copper and R10 in brass Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Find a jewler or a "we buy gold" place that does enough business to have an XRF gun and have them shoot it for you.
