Is bilion bullion?

satootoko

Bilion by definition has less than 50% silver. Must the mix be better than .500 fine to be considered bullion?

Preussen

I don't know whether it's bullion, but I believe it's billon, not billion - Preussen

satootoko

Spelling corrected.

Stork

Roy, you have the funniest emoticons!!! Foot in mouth--I could use that one on a daily basis!!!

As for your question, I have no idea...I would suspect those who accumulate coins for their silver content would prefer >50%, but some people are starting to pick up the war nickels and their content is lower...personally--and without a dictionary--I would expect bullion to be in the >90% category, with 'scrap' or 'junk' silver coming in at anything less still worth smelting for.

I wouldn't mind seeing a proper definition..but I am late for work and will look for an answer later. If I remember.


Cathy

SYRACUSIAN

I always thought that billon contained 10-30% silver. Here's my favourite billon coin, a Swiss 10 rappen, PCGS MS67 ,definetely worth more than bullion.

Preussen

<< <i>

Spelling corrected. >>

b i l l o n

Billon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Billon is an alloy of a precious metal (most commonly silver, but also gold) with a majority base metal content (such as copper). It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins.

The word originates from the middle Latin billo, meaning "a coin containing mostly copper", or just "unit of payment".

Use of billon coins dates through Middle Ages to ancient Greece. During 6th and 5th century BC, some cities on Lesbos island used coins made of 60% copper and 40% silver. During the Middle Ages, leaner mixtures were adopted, some with only 25% or even 20% of silver.[1]

trozau

Also from Wikipedia: Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion, and are traded on commodity markets. Bullion metals may be cast into ingots, or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money.

I guess a billon can be a bullion when it comes to the point when its face value is less than its intrinsic metal value.

cladking

IMO in depends.

Many people don't consider less than 500 fine to even be silver much
as I don't consider grocery packets of frozen water to be fish.

But I believe it's still silver and it can still be used as silver. The catch
being that very low grade silver as billon can be very difficult to refine
and some coins can be highly variable in the amount of silver in them.

Refiners have said that some coins are very heavily diccounted to the
silver weight because of both of these points. The Mexican silver wash
pesos are often well underweight. Even the US war nickel can be hard
to refine because of manganese. Some of the Latin American coins
were even made with "bad silver".

Generally you run into these problem only below about .600. But there
is good bilion and bad bilion.

rhound1977

<< <i>I always thought that billon contained 10-30% silver. Here's my favourite billon coin, a Swiss 10 rappen, PCGS MS67 ,definetely worth more than bullion.

Sweet coin!

wybrit

I learned something today. Never heard of "bilion."

Preussen

<< <i>I learned something today. Never heard of "bilion." >>

Neither have I, although I have heard of b i l l o n. I wonder if they're similar - Preussen

cladking

There's probably a similarity.

Shouldda looked it up.

Preussen

<< <i>There's probably a similarity.

Shouldda looked it up. >>

Just having a bit of fun with an unusual word - Preussen