The U.S. penny's un-American history
DuPapa
Posts: 495 ✭✭
Yes, It's really a Cent... but if made from English copper it just might be a penny after all...
The study, accepted for publication in Archaeological Science, also found that some pennies are more European than American, since the metal in them came from an English mine.
Historical records reveal that from 1800 to 1837, entrepreneur Matthew Robinson Boulton, who was director of the Soho Mint in Cornwall, England, supplied copper for the U.S. Mint. Mathur and his team, however, could see that British copper remained in American cents until 1849, when the supply came from a Michigan mine. Records also indicate silver and gold in other U.S. currency was imported from abroad.
They determined that while copper in U.S. coins does not carry a distinct signature, copper isotopes do vary depending on the temperature at the time of mineralization. This allowed them to trace metal sources back to their original ore deposits. An isotope is one of two or more atoms that have the same atomic number but different mass.
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- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
Yes, It's really a Cent... but if made from English copper it just might be a penny after all...
The study, accepted for publication in Archaeological Science, also found that some pennies are more European than American, since the metal in them came from an English mine.
Historical records reveal that from 1800 to 1837, entrepreneur Matthew Robinson Boulton, who was director of the Soho Mint in Cornwall, England, supplied copper for the U.S. Mint. Mathur and his team, however, could see that British copper remained in American cents until 1849, when the supply came from a Michigan mine. Records also indicate silver and gold in other U.S. currency was imported from abroad.
They determined that while copper in U.S. coins does not carry a distinct signature, copper isotopes do vary depending on the temperature at the time of mineralization. This allowed them to trace metal sources back to their original ore deposits. An isotope is one of two or more atoms that have the same atomic number but different mass.
Unfortunately the study may need to be rewritten. The following dates apply:
1) Matthew Boulton did prepare planchets for the Mint from 1798 to 1837, using English
copper.
2) A second English manufacturer, Belles & Harrold, also made planchets for the U.S.
Mint from 1816 to about 1832. This firm also used English copper.
3) Crocker Brothers of Taunton, Massachusetts, prepared planchets for cents and half
cents beginning in 1832, using copper from Peru.
4) In 1844 there was a political row over the copper for coinage and Treasury Secretary
George Bibb tried to get the contract for a Wisconsin firm. Director Patterson resented the
interference and persuaded Crocker Brothers to use U.S. copper.
5) There were a handful of other U.S. companies, such as Selah Hiler, supplying planchets
through 1857 but the bulk was from Crocker Brothers.
The study says that Boulton was in Cornwall whereas in fact both his firm and Belles & Harrold were
in Birmingham.
Denga