Coin Collecting : Elements Used in CoinsShow Video Details ↓ Rui: How many times have you taken a coin out of your pocket or gotten a coin back in change and thought that you'd hit the bonanza because you had real silver in your hands? Hi I'm Rui and we're going to be talking about different various elements used in minting coins. If that coin that you got back in change is dated post 1964, sorry it's not real silver. There's a variety of different elements and alloys used in producing coins now in the United States and throughout the world. The most common obviously in this country has been gold, silver, copper, and nickel. But, now, there's everything from aluminum to bronze, even to steel, depending on what was happening in the world markets and in world current events. During world war 2, copper became incredibly scarce because it was used in all kinds of wartime materials so the United States government started minting pennies out of steel. Now the 1943 steel penny is highly collectible and highly valuable. Silver was phased out in 1964. Gold was also phased out except for specialty coins that are made primarily just for collecting. Currently, congress is actually investigating making our 5 cent piece, commonly known as the nickel because of the material it was made out of, out of steel instead of nickel, because currently it costs 7.5 cents, 7 and a half cents to produce 1 nickel. So it's a loser right from the start from when it was minted. Again, I'm Rui and you can find a number of these different alloys and elements in coins in reference books similar to this one, this antiques and collectibles guide. There's a number of different coin collecting books that you can, if you find coins that don't look like they're the typical... made out of the typical material you're used to, you can look them up, see, check the year, style of the coin, see what that coin's made out of and see if you did find something great. Again, I'm Rui. Good luck collecting. |