Identifying Brass - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 3 / Views: 1,237
chzman Pillar of the Community United States 1137 Posts	Posted 05/02/2012 09:45 am I have searched everywhere on the internet for an efficient way to identify brass in my coins. I separate the years brass was used by the mint, or at least confirmed by the mint to be brass in those particular years. I want to go through this bag of coins to search for ones that may be brass. Can anyone tell me if a magnet really works? I do not even think they are worth much money but I am in an age of discover and would like to find one myself. Report this Post to the Staff

papatony Pillar of the Community United States 808 Posts	Posted 05/02/2012 10:47 am Well a magnet will let you know its not ferrous metals but I really don't know how you could tell if they are brass. hopefully one of the other more knowledgeable members can help. Good luck!! Report this Post to the Staff
biokemist6 Bedrock of the Community United States 12437 Posts	Posted 05/02/2012 10:54 am I think you have a misunderstanding of what you are looking for. Zincolns were never struck on brass planchets and a magnet would be useless on anything but a 1943 cent since a magnet would only be attracted to ferromagnetic metals(for modern coinage purposes, that would be steel and pure nickel). The Zincoln brass errors occurred when zinc planchets dissolved in the electrolytic copper plating bath. Zinc + copper= brass so when the zinc blanks were plated, they were plated with a yellow brass and not pure copper. Once a brass plated Zincoln has been circulated, it is essentially lost and there is no way to definitively authenticate it. You will only be able to identify coins that are fully lustrous MS with a bright yellow color. Report this Post to the Staff
chzman Pillar of the Community United States 1137 Posts	Posted 05/02/2012 11:02 am Unfortunate but good to know I don't need to waste time looking at them individually, guess I will buy a few of those to add to the collection. Thanks bio! Report this Post to the Staff
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