Collecting by elements?

Sylvestius

Anyone ever tried this approach?

I just thought someone may be looking for a bit of inspiration...

Copper, silver, gold, tin, iron, lead, zinc, aluminium, platinum, palladium... i bet that would be a challenge and a half!

I almost fancy it myself but i've got enough on.

spoon

I was collecting French aluminum a while ago.. not so much because of some childhood trauma that caused an aluminum fetish.. it just so happens that the French colonies all used aluminum for their coins after WWII. So in a way, unintentionally, I think I fit here.

I know we have a few guys here who specialize in copper/bronze. Not sure any sane person would specialize in zinc issues! But tin might be neat just because of the oddities you'd encounter.

Sylvestius

<< <i>I was collecting French aluminum a while ago.. not so much because of some childhood trauma that caused an aluminum fetish.. it just so happens that the French colonies all used aluminum for their coins after WWII. So in a way, unintentionally, I think I fit here.

I know we have a few guys here who specialize in copper/bronze. Not sure any sane person would specialize in zinc issues! But tin might be neat just because of the oddities you'd encounter. >>




Dunno i quite like zinc coins myself.

What i thought though how possible would it be to collect one coin of each elemental metal (or non-metal)... obviously when you've eliminated the actinides/lanthanides, group 1 and 2 metals from the equation along with things like the mettaloid arsenic and of course mercury.

Take the gases and poisonous elements out. You'll be left with most transition elements apart from maybe 3 or 4 and the odd 'other' metal like lead and tin.

It'sd be a new approach to collecting. How many people have titanium or molybdenum coins? Or tungsten coins?

spoon

Oh! I see what you're saying.. hmm....

You'd probably have to have some really flexible outlines for the collection.. you won't be able to get much if it aint alloyed. Can we count porcelain and similar odd coin materials? and painted ones?

Okay, let's list off the common ones:

13 Aluminum
26 Iron
28 Nickel
29 Copper
30 Zinc
47 Silver
50 Tin
78 Platinum
79 Gold
82 Lead

That's 10. Now some more odd ones that I know exist (and some may be commonly alloyed with the above):

12 Magnesium
22 Titanium
24 Chromium
25 Manganese
41 Niobium

That's only 5 more. What other oddities could likely be included in a coin? I know a few more might work, but has it been done?

spoon

Ah, well here's a good guide with much more than I expected:

Metals Used in Coins and Medals

Askari

This can be a real challenge indeed. Although I haven't really focused on it, I have collected a number of medals of unusual materials. To date, these include bronze, copper, brass, gold, silver, billon, tin, white metal, pewter, German silver, glass, iron, lead, zinc, aluminum, porcelain, enamel, tombac, cupro-nickel, wood, wood & felt, paper, bois-durci (an early form of plastic), plastic, quartzite, and terra cotta. If you add in different types of finishes, this gets multiplied considerably.

Sylvestius

If you stray beyond the elements themselves then it becomes vastly more challenging, cos you get bronze, brass, different purities of gold and silver, nordic gold, cupronickel, clad etc. it gets very very confusing and dare i say impossible. (Or near to, to ever achieve it!)

Slightly more regulated with one coin as an example of an element.

Myself i had;

Sn, Zn, Cu, Au, Ag and Al.

I recently sold the Sn so now i'm short of that one!

1jester

Well, I've got a titanium alloy coin, and an old lead pattern coin.

Refrema

At one time I had thought that I would try this, and did a little research. I found a great page on the internet that listed 28 different Elements, and 29 different Alloys, along with 9 non metals used for currency.

It lists examples of coins for each type of metal, as well as information about each of the elements and alloys.

I tried to access that site today, but it is no longer available, and the author is not listed in the article. It is a very long article with 21 pages of information. The author lists his sources for the coinage information and also lists detailed metallurgical information for each element, as well as why some of them are not used.

I am glad that I printed the whole thing, and filed it where I could find it. PM me if you want a copy, and I will see what I can do to have a copy made.

Bob

cladking

I like zinc. OK, sure it's a very tough metal to collect because it's hard to find attractive
coins in any grade at all. Uncs are almost an invitation to oxidation and unless the coins
circulate with good velocity they'll start rusting pretty fast.

Tin is fun but most of them are Thai. Gems aren't easy but are possible. Tin will likely be
a far more expensive metal someday.

Ya' gotta love alumunum because no one else does. The coins are usually considered just
about "disposable" and a lot have been destroyed.

Nickel is another grossly undervalued metal. If consumers ever start caring about quality
in their purchases there will be a lot more nickel used in production and its price will be
far higher. There aren't a lot of pure nickel coins and attrition for some has been nearly
complete since it works so well as an alloy.

...and who doesn't like the beauty of platinum, paladium, silver, gold and precious metals?

Odd-ball metals are just scarce enough that they tend to be rare as type. The only moly
one I can think of is a Michigan promotional piece from the '33 world's fair. There are a
surprising number of collectors who are attempting to put together complete alloy and/ or
elemental sets.

Steve27

Wow, someone as crazy as I am. I started doing this until I hit palladium, I know there are a lot of commemoratives from the USSR made of palladium, but I've never seen one.

cladking

The French issued several palladium coins in the '80's.