1859 Canadian Brass Cent?

darutis, why don't you send it to a third party grading company like CCCS or ICCS. They can authenticate it for you. :)

Since you posted your large cent in both of the Canadian coin forums of this site, this one seems to be where you are the most persistent. So I will cut and paste my comments from the other forum in this thread in this forum so that it's all together:

"The bronze (or any alloy) is rolled out into thin sheets/strips by massive, weighted rollers and the planchets (blanks) are/were essentially punched/cut out of the sheets or strips. The cutting/punching dies are all exactly the same diameter (25.4 mm). So any planchet made from there will be exactly the same diameter, whether it was copper, brass, steel, plastic, leather or whatever material was/may be being used. The planchets were each to weigh 4.54g with variations allowed for a small tolerance. This was 1859 and the rolled sheets that the planchets were struck from varied a little in thickness from strip to strip, so the weight of each planchet may have started out not all exactly the same. If a newly struck coin was supposed to weigh 4.54g in uncirculated condition, then an AU may have weighed 4.50, and XF 4.45, a VF 4.35 and so on because the metal was being worn away. I would imagine that there are some coins down by the 4.0g weight and still readable. Not every coin started at 4.54 .. many were lighter. The variation in weight between a brass coin to a bronze one is extremely small, based only on alloy composition .. the densities are not all that different in the alloy mixtures that are possible. Any amount of wear in the coin eliminates any alloy weight difference found.

I'm not trying to be harsh, just trying to keep my reality hat on. What you were saying is the same as thinking that you can tell a person's hair color over the phone by only knowing his weight and shoe size. There is a small group of us working on the 1859 brass cent project, with the first part of the project published in the March 2012 Canadian Numismatic Journal. Try to get a copy. There are 2 more phases to go with it and I think that, in something upcoming, we need to amplify the identification problem that people seem to be having. You can't go by size and weight or even color, since I've seen scores of 1859's that look really yellow in color, but any number of chemicals, natural or man-made will turn bronze yellow, including lime/lemon juice, CRC, vinegar, and any number of household cleaners. Just be happy that you have a 150+ year old coin for your collection .. 1859's are neat, but yours isn't brass unless you send it somewhere to have it tested. You can't pick up a coin with a mintage of 9 million and say that it's brass (a handful known) based upon a phone call or one sentence from a website that gives diameter and weight."

Every single one of the 10 million planchets ordered by Canada(not yet a country) for the 1858/1859 Large Cents came from the same contractor, ordered to be all the same alloy, and were run through the same machines. Brass coins are not a different size than bronze ones ... they were all cut from the same sheets. There was no "special run" made to produce brass 1859 coins ... they were the result of improper mixing in the melt pot or crucible. Some of the strips or sheets may have had slightly different alloy compositions when they were rolled out .. primarily due to the densities of metals involved and the mechanics of the pour itself into ingots or billets from the pot. Once rolling into sheets from the small ingots started, an entire strip or strips, or just portions of the strip, concentrated an alloy that was heavier in zinc than the rest of the batch.... viola, brass instead of bronze.

If you think that you have a brass large cent, by all means send it out to get certified. I'm just trying to save you some money. After looking at 10's of thousands of 1859's (my pets) over the last 30 years, I can say, with almost 100% certainty, that you don't have a brass cent. Visions of sugarplums are clouding your perceptions.

Brass with low zinc content is relatively soft.

Bill in Burlto be honest,I've already lost my 50 busksit appears that bankofcanada information,about currency received from Nowhere
so Bill tell me,After looking at 10's of thousands of 1859's How many coins have seen a larger diameter than the 25.4mm?

Around 10% zinc, with little or no tin.

If you really want to know, it will only cost you postage (both ways) for me to test it for you in my lab with the XRF. Read my profile, and most members here, including the moderators, can vouch for me.

These coins probably were struck on different coin presses. I am guessing that all of the collars were not all perfectly 25.4 mm. and the planchet expanded into a slightly larger collar upon striking.

Darutis ... I finally found my caliper and thought that I would give you the diameters of 10 random 1859 bronze cents. I have at least 600 in albums and another 300 or so loose to look at some more. Here is what I found in a completely random stack of 10:
the 10 ranged from a low of 26.67mm (1) to 27.94mm (2) with most in the centered (within .05 mm) at 27.56mm. As Bosox said, the planchets were ordered at 25.4 mm and the collars for the dies had to be a little bigger. When the when the hammer die met the anvil die, then planchet had to expand due to the pressure; hence the larger diameter than the 25.4 start.