What's your favorite coinage metal?
Donovan
Posts: 386 ✭
0
Donovan
Posts: 386 ✭
Donovan
Posts: 386 ✭
Comments
San Diego, CA
Because!
Rgrds
TP
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
There's something about finding nature's colors on those silver artifacts from the 19 century. Gold's color is essentially unchageable. I may have my share of $20 gold pieces, but I love the silver first. As a rule it is more underrated too.
roadrunner
Gold's no slouch, though...don't get me wrong.
#2 Silver
Stuart
Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal
"Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
Coinlearner, Ahrensdad, Nolawyer, RG, coinlieutenant, Yorkshireman, lordmarcovan, Soldi, masscrew, JimTyler, Relaxn, jclovescoins
Now listen boy, I'm tryin' to teach you sumthin' . . . . that ain't an optical illusion, it only looks like an optical illusion.
My mind reader refuses to charge me....
myEbay
DPOTD 3
they are percieved to have intrinsic value. This results in more being saved in higher grade
than would otherwise be the case and in the coins never being called in or redeemed be-
cause people are rarely interested in turning in good silver for the newer debased currency.
While silver is obviously a good coinage metal simply because of this percieved value and
because it strikes and wears well, it is the coinage metal of choice for most collectors also.
This causes it to have a significant demand which prices me out of many of these coins.
Copper/nickel has only one real world advantage on silver and that is that it wears far better.
While its hardness is not so very much higher than most silver alloys, its lower weight results
in much less wear since there is less momentum in collisions and less force usually when metal
is sloughed off of the coin. Cu/ni doesn't take a strike well so well made examples are usually
much more difficult to find. One of its greatest advantages from a collectors standpoint is that
these are often ignored by collectors. This results in the coins not being saved and then the
circulated issues being destroyed when they lose their legal tender status. All these factors tend
to make them ideal for collectors' purposes. Cu/ni is less reactive than silver so there is also a lit-
tle less problem with tarnishing or unattractive toning.
Gold coins are interesting but most haven't seen very extensive circulation and high grade exam-
ples tend to be even more likely due to even more extensive hoarding than silver.
Aluminum is an attractive coinage metal in some applications but tends not to wear well. Zinc, steel
and iron corrode too readily and usually looks bad even while it's still circulating. All these last metals
are good from a hoarders standpoint but are not attractive metal in which to make coins generally.
Pure nickel is OK since it has the advantage of intrinsic value plus wearability but it's magnetic. This
should generally be avoided in coinage because of unintended consequences.