It was discovered on 21 September 1900, by astronomers Max Wolf and Arnold Schwassmann at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.
[17] Alternatively, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) characterized Hercynia as a metallic M-type asteroid.
[5] Lightcurve analysis gave a consolidated, slightly longer-than average rotation period of 21.806 hours with a brightness amplitude between 0.10 and 0.36 magnitude (U=2/2-/3/2/2).
[7][8][9][10][11][12] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.1654 from IRAS, and derives a diameter of 38.57 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.64.
[5][10] This minor planet was named after the ancient Central European Hercynian Forest, known as "Hercynia silva" to the Romans.