1899 Penny. Is That Brass Coming Through?

More like some light corrosion on the coin, and fresh scratches/scuffing I'd guess.

I asked brass cause looks weird not like bronze that why FYI?

Copper turns all sorts of colors including orange especially when cleaned.

Hey convict, as you start collecting more you'll see all types of wear, scratches, corrosion (like rust) and the worst, coins that have been cleaned or somehow altered by amateurs trying to make the coin look better. Unfortunately it only makes them worse. After a while you'll start to decide if a coin is corroded or altered too much to be in your collection. Be real careful on the online sites because it's hard to tell sometimes if a coin is naturally toned or altered. I love Indian Head cents and it's good to see we have another IHC collector on board.

Brass and bronze have almost identical colors when the copper content is similar. When most people think of brass they think of the the very yellow color seen of brass musical instruments. That is a 70% copper 30% zinc alloy But the lincoln cents from 1963 to 1981 are also brass but they have a 95% copper 5% zinc alloy and look completely different from what is typically thought of as "Brass". in if you can find a mint red 1961 or 62 cent and compare it to a mint red 1963 you would find it almost impossible to tell them apart by color, but the 63 is brass, and the earlier ones are bronze.

So you take something like the OP coins and give it a fresh rub to expose raw untoned metal and it will look the same of bronze, brass, or even copper.