Hi, After going through my collection of 1859 large crnts, I noticed that one coin had a considerally less dark color, so could these be one of those brass cents? I have attached photos of it besides a normal large cent. Thanks in advance, Peter Z
I've never seen a "brass" cent with that wide a vine break at 7 or with one at 14. I think that it has just been cleaned with any number of under-the-sink household cleaners that turns them that color. Send it to spp and he can zap it to tell you, but think that it's bronze all the way.
The brass and bronze cents usually can't be differentiated by color alone. You need to go by markers, like what Bill mentioned, or a metallurgical analysis.
1859 darn it... to bad they cleaned it. probably a person thinking a shiny coin is worth more money. NOT!!!
SPP is Sherwood Park Pennies, a geologist that works in Ottawa. He has access to an XRF machine that will give the metallic alloy %'s down to the nth degree. He is one of the moderators on the "Coin Community Forums", a good site for all numismatics, but has separate sections for Canadian coins, varieties, errors, grading, etc. Here is what a search for "brass 1859" got me: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/search.asp?mode=DoIt Whoops, I guess the link doesn't go back to the search that I put in. You'll have to enter your own search, but here's a link to one of the forums: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=139
Hi, I tried getting it graded by ICCS, it is bronze just with weird toning. Thanks for all the replies!
