COPPER

Part of a Yuletide Tradition

- STEVE VOYNICK

Copper has been part of the nation’s yuletide holidays since its earliest days when tiny copper candle holders and hammered-copper ornaments hung from the first Christmas trees, and celebratory wassail was served in copper cups. These were times when lucky youngsters might even receive a special gift—a “copper,” which, after 1793, meant a U.S. large cent.

Large cents, the first coins ever struck by the United States Mint, are part of a copper coinage tradition that dates to earlier colonial times. The first circulating U.S. copper coin, the 1787 Fugio cent, actually predated the U.S. Mint. Designed by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin and variously known as the “Franklin cent,” “Congress cent,” and “national cent,” this 10.2-gram copper coin was not a true cent (1/100th of a dollar), but a close equivalent of the English copper halfpenny.

The U.S. Continental Congress of the Confederation authorized the Fugio cent and contracted its production to a private Connecticut mint, ambitiously ordering 300 tons of copper to be struck into millions of Fugio cents over several years. But only 4.1 tonnes (metric ton = 1.1 standard ton) of copper became 400,000 coins.

The biggest problem facing the production of the Fugiocent and all early American copper coinage was a shortage of copper, a metal with a plethora of uses. Ranking 25th in abundance among the Earth’s crust elements, copper is as common as zinc and nickel. Slightly harder than gold and silver, it is somewhat less dense than silver and nearly as malleable and ductile.