Yes. The Statue of Liberty is made of copper — roughly 62,000 pounds of it, about 31 tons, wrapped over an iron framework and standing 151 feet from heel to torch. The copper skin is only about 3/32 of an inch thick, thinner than two pennies pressed together, which is why a monument that large could be built at all.
But the fuller answer is the interesting one, because the copper on the Statue today is not entirely the copper France sent in the 1880s. Some of the original skin was removed during a federal restoration in the 1980s, authenticated, and preserved. We will come back to that, because it is the reason this page exists.
How much copper, and where it came from
The Statue's copper was hand-hammered in Paris in the early 1880s using a technique called repoussé — sheets of copper shaped by hand against wooden molds, hammered from behind into the folds of Liberty's robe and the lines of her face. The French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the figure. Gustave Eiffel, later of the tower, engineered the internal iron skeleton that holds the thin skin aloft.
The finished copper was disassembled, packed into 214 crates, and shipped across the Atlantic. It was reassembled on what was then Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor and dedicated in 1886. That 1886 date matters. It is the birth year of the copper itself, and the year stamped into the story of every coin we make.
Why the Statue of Liberty is green
Copper does not stay bright for long in salt air. Within about two decades, the Statue's copper skin oxidized from its original reddish-brown to the pale green it wears today. That green is a patina called verdigris — a thin, stable layer that forms on copper and, importantly, protects the metal underneath. The green you see is not corrosion eating the Statue away. It is copper defending itself.
Underneath the patina, the metal is still copper. Cut into it, and the reddish tone returns.
What happened to the original copper
By the early 1980s, a century of harbor weather had taken its toll — not on the copper skin, which held up remarkably well, but on the iron structure and some of the copper at the most stressed points. In 1984 the Statue closed for its most extensive restoration ever, completed in time for its centennial in 1986.
During that work, original 1886 copper was removed from the monument. Rather than being discarded, that copper was authenticated and placed into custodial stewardship, preserved at Belcourt of Newport, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit museum. It is the same copper hammered in Paris, shipped in those 214 crates, and raised over the harbor. And a finite amount of it has been struck into commemorative coins, each carrying complete provenance documentation.
So the honest answer to the question is layered. The Statue of Liberty is made of copper. The copper turned green to protect itself. And a piece of the original copper — the copper of 1886 — can now be held in your hand.
Real Liberty Copper is steward of authenticated 1886 Statue of Liberty copper, preserved during the 1984–1986 restoration at Belcourt of Newport. Read the full provenance story, review the documented chain of custody, or see the coin.