Solid Copper vs. the Look-Alikes

• CCA (copper-clad aluminum) — an aluminum core with a copper skin. Common in cheap speaker wire, some coax, and budget hook-up wire. Fresh cut: silver-gray aluminum inside copper.
• CCS (copper-clad steel) — a steel core with a copper skin. Common in RG-6/RG-59 coax center conductors. Fresh cut: dark steel core; a magnet grabs it.
• Tinned copper — solid copper with a tin coating. Silver surface, copper underneath — the only imposter that is genuinely copper.
• Aluminum wire — silver all the way through, light in the hand. Older service wire and some building wire.

Each grades differently, so identification is not trivia — it is money.

Cut — a fresh cross-section shows the truth: copper all through (solid Cu), silver core (CCA), dark core (CCS), silver-through (aluminum). Scrape — a knife on the surface separates tinned copper (copper shows) from aluminum (silver stays). Magnet — only steel-core wire grabs it. Weigh — aluminum feels dramatically lighter than copper of the same size. Run all four and there is no ambiguity left.

Selling CCA as copper gets a load re-graded on the spot — awkward at best. Selling genuine tinned copper as aluminum leaves real money behind. And buyers remember who tests their metal: the seller who arrives with CCA already separated from copper gets treated like a professional, because they are one.

CCA and CCS keep getting more common in imported cable, coax, and budget wire — the older the wire, the likelier it is solid copper; the newer and cheaper, the more it deserves a test. Make the cut-scrape-magnet habit automatic and the look-alikes stop costing you anything.

Photograph what you have — the wire, any jacket markings, and the overall quantity — and send it to Ironcrest for today’s offer. We buy nationally and coordinate pickup from your site.

Sell your copper to Ironcrest →  |  Call or text 312-880-8174  |  Send photos →

See also: What type of copper wire do I have?  |  Specialty conductors  |  Copper wire grades guide (canonical)

How can I tell if wire is copper or copper-clad aluminum?

Make a fresh cut across the conductor. Solid copper is copper-colored all the way through; CCA shows a silver-gray aluminum core inside the copper skin. CCA also feels lighter than solid copper of the same size.

Is copper-clad aluminum worth anything?

It has value — it is still partly copper — but it grades far below solid copper and must be sold as what it is. Separating it from your copper keeps the whole load honest and properly priced.

How do I tell copper-clad steel from copper?

Hold a magnet to a bare section. Steel-core wire grabs the magnet; solid copper ignores it. A cross-section cut confirms it — CCS shows a dark steel core inside the copper skin.

Is tinned copper the same as aluminum?

No — this is the most common mix-up in scrap. Tinned copper is solid copper with a silver tin coating; scrape it and copper shows through. Aluminum is silver all the way through and much lighter.

Why does my wire look silver?

Four possibilities: tinned copper (copper underneath — good), aluminum (silver through — different metal), CCA or CCS (clad cores — test further), or silver-plated copper (copper underneath — good). Cut, scrape, magnet, weigh — in that order.