Sacagawea Copper Core

The dollar coin features distinguishing traits including: a golden color, extra-wide border, smooth edge like the nickel's, and specially designed alloy.

Specifically, the Golden Dollar is: 8.1 grams in weight, 2 mm thick, and 26.5 mm in diameter.

The coins physical makeup is a three-layer clad construction - pure copper sandwiched between and metallurgically bonded to outer layers of manganese brass.

Manganese brass composition:
•77% copper
•12% zinc
•7% manganese
•4% nickel

Golden Dollar's overall composition:
•88.5% copper
•6.0% zinc
•3.5% manganese
•2% nickel

It's STILL almost a 90% Copper coin.........So, I don't understand the post here .....


Here's the math........


1. Calculate 88.5% copper value :

(3.7702 x .00220462262 x 8.1 x .885) = $0.0595828


2. Calculate 6% zinc value :

(0.8980 x .00220462262 x 8.1 x .06) = $0.0009620


3. Calculate 3.5% manganese value :

(3125.00 x (1.0 x 10-6) x 8.1 x .035) = $0.000885


4. Calculate 2% nickel value :

(8.3088 x .00220462262 x 8.1 x .02) = $0.0029673


5. Add the four together :

$0.0595828 + $0.0029673 + $0.000885 + $0.0009620 = $0.0643971


$0.0643971 is the melt value for the 2000-2012 Sacagawea golden dollar on March 22, 2012.

They do not. The copper core is visible on all of my proof golden baby dollars.

I will say that the photo above is an extreme example of how wide the core can appear. The width varies because of how the layers "bleed" when the blanks are stamped.

Some brass is pushed down but the copper core should still be almost always visible. The copper is nice and bright on a fresh coin and does not look much different in color from the manganese brass outer layers. After the coin has circulated a bit, the copper core would tone brown(like this one) and be more noticeable.

Yes, the toning increases the contrast between the core and clad layers.