1859 Canadian Brass Cent?

Why would you think that. It's within tolerance (for 1859). ALL 1858 & 1859 were 25.4mm and 4.54 g. Any wear on the coin and it will be less than 4.54g. Somehow, I don't think that the Bank of Canada is/was a collector. Spend $50 to have it certified for your $2 coin.

I have seen lower grade Vicky 1858 and 1859 cents weigh as little as 4.10 grams. The weight variation on these was so wide (primarily due to loose planchet thickness tolerances during the rolling operations) that you cannot determine a brass cent by weight.

I did see a true brass 1859 many years ago and didn't know what I was looking at. I could have bought it but didn't know of the importance at the time. It was very shiny and there was no darkness or staining in between the letters etc. ..and it was quite worn also

My loss... ..it was labeled "fake" in it's cardboard 2x2 holder by the old collector.........

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?