Bronze/Bronzed?

[Yarm]

I came across this halfpenny designated "Bronzed PF64" by NGC and began to look around. Peck lists both bronze and bronzed coins but NGC seems to used "bronzed" or no designation for such coins. Some of the bronze or bronzed coins that have been graded have "BN" attached and some don't (can they be RB or RD?!)

 

How does NGC deal with this in the grading/certification process? Thanks!

 

[DWLange]

For those who don't know, a "Bronzed" proof is one that was specially treated at the mint to give it a uniformly brown finish from the outset so that it wouldn't suffer the usual spotty red or red/brown toning. The exact technique of bronzing copper proofs varied, but it was essentially a chemical process that could be described as "official AT." These are numismatically acceptable, as that is how they were made at the mint.

 

The term appears most often with reference to world coins, though some of the Smithsonian's proof large cents from the 1820s and 1830s were bronzed, so there are also a few in the marketplace. Certain copper USA pattern coins from the 1860s are also found bronzed.

 

By definition, all bronzed proofs should be labeled BN (brown). In the past, this was not adhered to perfectly, but it is being standardized as we update each of the world coin census reports. This is a very slow process, and it's being done country by country, in order of descending of popularity.

[koincollector]

Thanks for the answer.(Thanks too to yarm for asking a good question). I would like to know how to distinguish between the bronzed issues and the regular ones. Do the bronzed issues also tone nicely like the regular copper ones?

 

I own some dark brown copper proofs of which both bronzed as well as the regular issues exist. One of them is in a slab labelled "bronzed" and is brown with no toning, while one is brown but exibits nice blue tones on the coin. The coin is an unmolested one and coming from an old collection and has not been treated with any chemicals.

[DWLange]

Proofs that are bronzed at the mint should not tone, as that was the reason for treating them in the first place. Typically, bronzed copper proofs have a dark, uniform brown color that may be somewhat grainy, perhaps from the application of bronzing power (the methods used from one mint to another and from one period to another varied).