1859 Canadian Penny Or Cent Brass?

to CCF
wefindem was correct in that you accidentally posted your pic to the wrong post.
I would suggest that you post both sides of the coin.
The maximum allowed to be uploaded to this site is 100 K.
If your pics are too large, just lower the resolution and that will make your file smaller.
Or you can post to a pic site and link to 'em.

As for your coin, it is copper. Interesting that it was encased in wax.

Judging from the color of the coin in your photo, I would say that the coin is not brass. Brass cents have a very yellow look to them (sometimes covered by darker toning), instead of the reddish look of a bronze mint state coin or brownish look of a bronze circulated coin. The coin below has been certified by PCGS as a brass cent.



If you collect 1859 cents, you will often run into circulated 1859 cents that look yellow. The vast majority of them are a result of chemical cleaning that altered the color of the metal.

Further complicating the problem is that you really cannot tell the diffence between bronze and brass cents by weight or specific gravity. The properties of 95/4/1 bronze and say 90/10 brass are so close that they overlapped under the loose manufacturing tolerances of the day

Brass cents are quite rare. Only about 25 brass 1859 cents have been certified by the major grading services.

here is an interesting tid bid about this coin.
I think, without having a high resolution pix, that it is the DP2 type

i do have a brass one somewhere. I was unaware of the weight difference until now so maybe I will weigh it and see what comes from there.

is it true that the copper tends to tone in a more brownish color whereas the brass turns a more black color? I'm not sure where I heard that but since the subject is up why not ask?

when I find it I will post pictures of it. There is so much stuff out and about in my house right now that its crazy... I don know that I love the 1859 cent because of all the varieties, so I do check the junk bins of each coin store and pick them out even in bad shape. and I buy each one they have in higher grades as well and then just stock pile them. Hopefully I will be able to find the right one and get some pics taken soon. I can say it was more of a vf-ef grade. :)

How I knew it was different is I took all my 1859's out one day and laid them out in rows on my desk and was going to check the dates for type. and just that one stuck out like a sore thumb, in the areas it had tones it was a darker tone color than all my others and the areas that were still clear of toning were not the right color for copper. more of an ugly yellowish color. but I could tell it hadn't been cleaned because it no cleaning marks and it had the mint shine still intact mostly in that area. geez I want to know what I did with that now.

i know I saved it this time because I did have a 1969 lg date dime that I spent by accident so now I am almost neurotic about hiding the good ones.