Posted 01/24/2011 08:49 am
It would also make a different sound if dropped on a table. Bronze makes a high pitched ring and zinc is a dead thud.
You very likely do not have a bronze 1989 cent because the bronze planchets were outdated in 1962 in favor of brass. They stopped using brass in 1982 in favor of the zinc. Zinc had been in production for six full years before the first 1989 cent was struck. VERY VERY highly unlikely a brass planchet was used to make any 1989 cents.
What you 'could' be talking about is the 'brass plated' cents where some zinc planchets fell into the pure copper bath for plating unstruck cent planchets. The mixture turns to a yellowish brass-like metal and subsequent coins turn out yellowish in color. You cannot "tell" if you have one of these in any scientific way. If they are yellowish in color it is assumed that's what they are. As for me, I cannot tell the difference because I am color blind, so I have never had any interest in them at all.
You very likely do not have a bronze 1989 cent because the bronze planchets were outdated in 1962 in favor of brass. They stopped using brass in 1982 in favor of the zinc. Zinc had been in production for six full years before the first 1989 cent was struck. VERY VERY highly unlikely a brass planchet was used to make any 1989 cents.
What you 'could' be talking about is the 'brass plated' cents where some zinc planchets fell into the pure copper bath for plating unstruck cent planchets. The mixture turns to a yellowish brass-like metal and subsequent coins turn out yellowish in color. You cannot "tell" if you have one of these in any scientific way. If they are yellowish in color it is assumed that's what they are. As for me, I cannot tell the difference because I am color blind, so I have never had any interest in them at all.
