Mint doesn't know difference between Bronze and Brass.

[ZenOps]

http://www.mint.ca/store/coin/bronze-co ... rod1680022

For the low low price of $34.95 you can have a 95%/5% copper/zinc coin weighing in at 19.2 grams.

But thats not what I noticed. I noticed that they call it a Bronze coin, which in my book pretty much requires tin, not zinc. The coin should technically be labelled as Brass, either that or they messed up on the zinc part.

[68Camaro]

I don't fault them.

The terms bronze and brass are historically and still practically imprecise - while there are those that attempt to enforce a distinction between brass being zinc only and bronze being tin only, if you examine the names of the common copper standard alloys then practically speaking that distinction is not enforced, and therefore not rigidly true. There are recognized "bronzes" with as much of 40% zinc in them.

If you really care enough about your copper alloy constituents to care about the above distinctions, then you really need to specify the exact alloy - or the specification number - rather than the name.

[68Cougar]

Alloys aside bronze sounds more coiny than brass. Maybe that is why they chose that word and how many people really know the difference or care.

[Lemon Thrower]

i always thought a bronze item had less copper than a brass item. think of brass musical instruments which are yellow, and bronze sculptures, which are a deep brown.

[ZenOps]

Tin is about $10/pound, zinc is more like $1. One is gold, the other is silver IMO (at least relationally)

Tin has always been more valuable as the metal other than gold that is completely non-toxic.

[henrysmedford]

From--http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bronze Read 1a and 1b.

Definition of BRONZE
1
a : an alloy of copper and tin and sometimes other elements
b : any of various copper-base alloys with little or no tin
2
: a sculpture or artifact of bronze
3
: a moderate yellowish brown
4
: a bronze medal awarded as the third prize in a competition
— bronzy adjective