1859 Brass Cent How Many Are Known To Exist?

In my opinion, coins of this type that are certified today should have a brief summary of the XRF result on the certificate. Otherwise, doubt always tends to remain. And this also applies to rare brass varieties of colonial tokens.



The pictures of this coin on the NGC website are more meaningful:



Source: https://www.NGCcoin.com/certlookup/2847086-002/20/

Even if I've already seen bronze coins with this hue, it's not the norm.

Maybe it's time to adjust the colors of your screen again

Well, until about 5 years ago, the ICCS test for brass was, from Brian C, to lightly scratch the edge of the coin and take it outside into bright sunlight. If the scratch showed yellow, it was cert'd brass. It had to be outside, because interior incandescent or fluorescent lighting made everything yellowish. I'd love to see the XRF's on some of those coins with that test. I think that the same type of "test" was used in the US TPG's as well before XRF was needed.

The acidity in the soil has greatly affected the color and I doubt very much that it's brass. Some dealers may have an XRF, as may some scrap dealers, but those aren't meant for minute copper/tin or copper/zince small alloys. The best thing about your coin is that it doesn't look like there's a vine break at 7. Go to the Haxby site and see if you can ID it. Brass cents were not relagated to one die ... they were mistakes caused by uneven alloy mixture in the crucibles as they poured the molten alloy into ingots to be flattened into thin sheets, from which the planchets are struck. A little portion of one sheet may have a very small section that may test as brass rather than bronze, just like when you pour a glass of juice and a little reidue remains in the bottom of the glass. Since there are small amounts of both zinc and tin in both brass and bronze alloys, it doesn't take much improper mixing to have more Zinc than Tin, making it brass rather than bronze. Planchets struck from the small portion are then mixed with all the other planchets, so one die may possibly strike 2-3 coins and another 2-3 coins. The planchets are all in one large container and mixed with the other 10 million that were struck for '59. I'd guess that there are 40-50 known and I have a friend that has one, complete with the XRF.

I helped write the March 2012 research article with 2 others for the CN Journal on brass cents titled "1859 brass cent: modern science addresses a classic numismatic question" where we XRF'd about 500 of our 1000+ 1859 cents, along with 1859/8' and 1858's. It's very neat article and we came to the conclusion that any brass cents were entirely random with no actual die correlation.. We figure, maybe 40-50 brass cents out of the 10 million minted and, because the huge container of 10 million blank planchets weren't relegated to any specific dies, then there may be brass 1858's or 9/8's as well. Of the well over 1000 1859's that we XRF'd, both before and after the RCNA article, we, of course, didn't find any brass cents, though we did find one that XRF'd at 6.29 % tin and another at almost 2% zinc, but it was still bronze. Brass is commonly accepted to be at least 20% zinc, though most commonly around 30%, depending on what type of brass is being made. Good luck finding an XRF that can accurately find the alloy from your heavily corroded 1859. That corrosion almost guarantees an inaccurate XRF. I live in the GTA as well in Burlington.

No, it's not just copper, it's bronze and there's tin in the alloy. Send me an email with the photo of the coin.

You can turn any 1859 cent the same color with any number of cleaning items under the sink, including bleach, vinegar and any number of others. We've seen many of these before on this and other sites, but there's always the possibility. Answered more fully on a different thread.