New discovery on J-182: 1856 Flying Eagle cent in bronze.

EagleEye · May 14, 2015 5:08AM

The first and only example to actually test out as bronze has been found. This is believed to be unique. There are other examples attributed as J-182 by PCGS, but they have all tested out as copper (tags were not submitted to remove their listing.) It was thought that the J-182 should be delisted as not existing because of these previous changed attributions. No longer.

Link to CoinFacts

sanitarium1inmate · May 14, 2015 5:18AM

Starting to get some real nice coloring to it also.

johnny9434 · May 14, 2015 5:31AM

thats a really nice coin. i like

AngryTurtle · May 14, 2015 5:38AM

I assume this was confirmed with a quantitative measure, XRF, specific gravity, etc. Now knowing the answer, does the color look any different than a "run of the mill" 1856 (if there is such a thing) or a 1857 or 1858?

EagleEye · May 14, 2015 5:48AM

I submitted the coin at the CSNS show. It was in a J-182 holder, but every J-182 that I have seen earlier had tested out as copper and had to have its attribution changed. This one looked lighter than copper, so I thought that it might have tested as a CN piece. PCGS did an X-ray diffraction test and it came back 93% Cu, 3.8% Sn, 2.6% Zn. 46.6 grains. Also it is a Snow-4 die pair (Low leaves reverse) which had the bronze listed as "Snow-4c, unknown to exist" in my book.

ms70 · May 14, 2015 6:10AM

Amazing discovery. Incredible that after all these years, one of a kind or very rare pieces are still being found.

MrEureka · May 14, 2015 6:49AM

Cool find. What's the weight?

EagleEye · May 14, 2015 7:53AM

46.6 grains. Thin planchet. The Low leaves reverse was designed in 1858, so that is likely when it was struck.

MrEureka · May 14, 2015 8:38AM

46.6 grains. Thin planchet. The Low leaves reverse was designed in 1858, so that is likely when it was struck.

That's close enough to a normal bronze cent that it makes me think 1864 or later, but that's pure speculation.

DollarAfterDollar · May 14, 2015 10:01AM

Living up to your screenname. I'd bet the coin could change hands 100 times and nobody else would have the same incling to have it checked out. Nice work.

Unknown · May 14, 2015 11:05AM

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Baley · May 14, 2015 11:19AM

Neat find, now we all have to check all of our 1856 flying eagle cents

golden · May 14, 2015 11:31AM

Super nice!

sadysta1 · May 14, 2015 12:01PM

Congrats on the find!!!

Time to rev up the book!!!!

MsMorrisine · May 14, 2015 12:06PM

<< <i>Congrats on the find!!!

Time to rev up the book!!!! >>

All future copies purchased will have a hand written addendum!

Unknown · May 14, 2015 1:23PM

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OldIndianNutKase · May 14, 2015 1:35PM

Congratulations Rick on an amazing discovery. You are so deserving of being the discoverer, as most of us cannot discern the difference between copper and bronze, especially after it has aged over 150 years. Even PCGS didn't see enough color variation to grade it .91 Questionable Color. It will be fun to see how many others are out there.

OINK

EagleEye · May 14, 2015 1:54PM

To be clear, I didn't "discover" this as some unattributed coin. It was already graded and attributed correctly as a J-182. However, all previous attributions of J-182 turned out to be wrong, making all previous J-182's change their attribution to J-181, copper.

What is important is that the J-182 is now known to exist, since this is the first and only example that has tested to be bronze not copper.

I bought the other J-182 PR62 a few years back and had it tested and sadly, it was misattributed. It reholdered to J-181. It is impossible to state that something does not exist, but with all previous J-182's being tested and becoming J-181, you have to, at some point, state that there are no legitimate J-182 bronze examples that are thought to exist. Then you find one and it changes the number known from 0 to 1. That's important.

nwcoast · May 14, 2015 2:06PM

Very cool discovery!!!
And a beutiful and colorful coin

DCW · May 14, 2015 4:07PM

Congratulations, Rick. That is one beautiful coin and an important "discovery."

TopographicOceans · May 14, 2015 4:29PM

That's so nice there should only be one.

astrorat · May 14, 2015 9:43PM

Nice work, Rick.

SullivanNumismatics · May 15, 2015 12:43AM

Interesting coin. My first thought was "transitional off-metal", but of course that's not possible unless someone pulled out the dies in 1864 and made piece for a collector.

LanceNewmanOCC · May 15, 2015 9:40AM

<< <i> Then you find one and it changes the number known from 0 to 1. That's important. >>

you have explained this quite effectively imo

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New discovery on J-182: 1856 Flying Eagle cent in bronze.

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