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Message:: [QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 2034947, member: 72790"]Thanks and you just may be right about that. I did some weighing of coppers from the period" two farthings from the late 1600's 4.9 and 5.3 grams, four half pennies from the mid 1700's at 9.2, 9.8, 9.9 and 9.4 grams, a 1723 Wood's Hibernia at 7.04 grams, a British evasion token of 1774 at 6.8 grams, an Irish half penny at 6.4 grams, an 1806 Irish farthing at 4.2 grams. In addition an 1829 US half cent weighed in at 5.2 grams and an 1846 large US cent at 10.1 grams and an 1822 cent at 10.4 grams. It would appear, from this regrettably small sample,  that the US cent had a gram or so more copper than the British half penny. The only NJ copper I have is a 1786 with some obvious wear and it comes in at 8.4 grams, so maybe minted at some nine grams. That weight would put it in the British half penny category which is pretty close to that of a US cent. I guess that I would conclude that the NJ copper did circulate at a value of one cent, rather than one half of a cent. Being off by a gram or two probably did not much affect its acceptance in trade. If we were talking about gold or silver it probably would have mattered, but for coppers I guess not, unless one was trying to unload a barrel full, in which case it would probably be weighed and assigned its metallic value. Thanks for the response you gave me.[/QUOTE]