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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 7610036, member: 66&quot;]One thing you are missing is that at the time the general belief was that in order for a coin to be acceptable and circulate it had to contain close to its full value.&nbsp; That was why the copper cent was so large, and even at that it was deliberately undersized for its face value.&nbsp; The original 1792 Birch cent pattern was to contain its full value, and was to be 264 grains of copper or 17.3 grams (the chain cent as made was only 13.5 grams).&nbsp; At that rate a base metal (copper) dollar would have weighed 1713 grams or 3.77 pounds,&nbsp; a base metal eagle would have been 37.7 pounds.&nbsp; Not really a coin you would want to carry around.&nbsp; (See Swedish plate money.&nbsp; They tried the base metal approach, their copper 10 Riksdalar coin weighed 44 pounds)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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