The original colors of the Statue of Liberty were a dull reddish copper
The Statue of Liberty originally gleamed with the bright, reddish-brown hue of a fresh penny before a natural chemical process transformed its exterior into the iconic seafoam green seen today.
When France gifted the statue to the United States in 1885, its exterior consisted of thirty tons of polished copper. Over the next thirty years, exposure to New York Harbor’s rain and salty air triggered a process called patination. This chemical reaction created a thin layer of copper carbonate that protected the underlying metal from corrosion.
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