Oroide composition
DMWJR
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Is it copper and tin, or
copper, tin, and zinc?
It's a funny word.
Doug
0
DMWJR
Posts: 6,020 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
Cu-Zn or Cu-Sn. Also might have bits of other elements. Old oroide is likely to be even more of a mash-up of stuff that looks a little like gold.
thanks!
noun
1. an alloy containing copper, tin, etc., used to imitate gold. Cheers, RickO
Yes, but I was curious about the specific proportions. I think there are any, which is what Roger said. Certainly nothing as clear as what I found on Goloid:
Goloid is an alloy of silver, gold and copper patented by Dr. William Wheeler Hubbell on May 22, 1877 (U.S. patent #191,146). The patent specifies 1 part gold (about 3.6%), 24 parts silver (about 87.3%), and 2.5 parts copper (about 9.1%, all by weight)
There is no generally agreed on composition for "oroide."
"Goloid" alloy was a specific ternary alloy that Hubble tried to foist on the United States. He had the backing of a rather foolish Alexander Stephens who refused to grasp the fundamental problems associated with the alloy -- and the silliness of Hubbell's claims.
"Goloid" was only one of many gold-silver alloys and proposals that were intended to stabilize the ratio between gold and silver monetary metals -- something that was impossible.
A future edition of the Journal of Numismatic Research (JNR) has a detailed article about the fiasco. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Cool Roger ! Thanks!
In the book "United States Pattern Coins" Tenth Edition
Oroide is listed: Oroide was a cheap alloy made in the
1860s and other times to produce jewelry, watch cases
ornaments, and the like, with a color approximating that
of gold. The term was derived from the Spanish "oro",
meaning gold. In 1864, an alloy of 19 parts copper and
1 part aluminum resulted in a golden coin called oroide,
and other variations occurred.
The end !
R.I.P. Bear
Aluminum was not used in any commercial alloy in 1864 - it was too expensive and too difficult to work with due to oxidation. Dictionary consensus is from French oréide.
["Origin. From French, from or (“gold") + Ancient Greek εἶδος (eidos, “appearance", “shape", “form"). http://www.yourdictionary.com/oroide#QkhseYXFk6GSD8iu.99]