While I was in the Netherlands Antilles I once found an aluminium coin of 5¢ which I dropped and when I picked it up it looked like a stone, in fact I found hundreds of coins in my short time there that the bank wouldn't take because the aluminium was too damages, the Dutch Antillean people themselves didn't give any value to those coins and since that moment I have had a strong resentment towards aluminium coins because of how easy they break and become unreadable. Many days I could not tell if I were picking up pebbles or coins and both got accepted or not based on how a seller perceived it (if one seller told me it was a pebble one or twenty sellers later would accept it as "real money") which just shows the inefficiency of small aluminium coins.
My experience with zinc coins are even worse, thin zinc coins can literally break in your hands and the reason I started putting my coins in capsules was because of a Tonkinese zinc Sapèque.
So why not make coins from stainless steel? Iron is the second most common metal after aluminium and copper is a lot more expensive and less common than iron, so stainless steel coins would make sense. Many governments are dropping their copper low denomination coins because their nominal value is often lower than their intrinsic value and I suspect that many are familiar with how aluminium coins work (see above) which were extensively used by Socialist states so I don't think that people would want to replace them with aluminium, but iron is very cheap as it's the second most common metal on earth, and I know that Italy and Italian Albania had stainless steel coins during WWII so why wasn't this repeated by other countries?
The U.S. American steel penny failed because it would oxidate too quickly, and I'm pretty sure that stainless steel wouldn't oxidate as quickly as "regular steel" so there must be a reason why governments don't just issue stainless steel low denomination coins.
Quote: "Trung Quoc Don"
My experience with zinc coins are even worse, thin zinc coins can literally break in your hands and the reason I started putting my coins in capsules was because of a Tonkinese zinc Sapèque.
I can relate to this, a few of my WWII Tunisian 10 and 20 centimes did just that a few months ago. Sad!
Stainless Steel is the best material for coins.Italian Government is very wise to start this trend.For this Best example is Country like India ,Bangladesh etc where coins are subjected to very harsh condition,coins are thrown at worship places,coins are thrown in vegetable market,fish market,beggars bowl,fast food shops and many more.coins are used very roughly ,still the stainless steel coins the inscription ,picture are intact compare to cupro-nickel coins,I personally hate Aluminium coins I remember when I was young we had 5,10,20 paisa coins of aluminium and they were in very bad condition ,I never saw a good coin in circulation when I was young.Only now after almost 20 years I see XF coins on Ebay and I wonder where these coins come from.Technically aluminium is not at all suitable for coins it corrode very easily,bend very easily and get damage is very shot period. I guess there is only some kind of Business Interest of Governments to use aluminium for coins as a Person with basic Knowledge to Engineering and metals will never consider Aluminium for coins.
Copper too is not very suitable ,I wonder why is so popular world wide in use of coins,Nickel is very good,cupro nickle is also good technically .It simple the metal which do not corrode easily,tough to get scratches,non reactive to common chemical are to be consider for coins.Iron coins are worst example for coins,so is Zinc coins.
Quote: "arvin11"Copper too is not very suitable ,I wonder why is so popular world wide in use of coins,Nickel is very good,cupro nickle is also good technically.
One reason for the popularity of copper, nickel and zinc in coins may be the antiseptic properties of these materials - germs won't survive on the surface.
Quote: "Trung Quoc Don"
My experience with zinc coins are even worse, thin zinc coins can literally break in your hands and the reason I started putting my coins in capsules was because of a Tonkinese zinc Sapèque.
I can relate to this, a few of my WWII Tunisian 10 and 20 centimes did just that a few months ago. Sad!
I started using capsules because I feared that this would happen to my 1905 zinc sapèques but the fact that this actually happened to you confirms my fears.
Quote: "arvin11"Copper too is not very suitable ,I wonder why is so popular world wide in use of coins,Nickel is very good,cupro nickle is also good technically.
One reason for the popularity of copper, nickel and zinc in coins may be the antiseptic properties of these materials - germs won't survive on the surface.
That actually makes a lot of sense, especially when one considers that low denomination coins will be exchanged by a lot of sweaty hands, but wouldn't this be solvable by adding a thin coating? I mean of something other than copper (as the 1,2, and 5 euro-cent coins are mostly steel coins with a very thin layer of copper).
QuoteOne reason for the popularity of copper, nickel and zinc in coins may be the antiseptic properties of these materials - germs won't survive on the surface.
I don't think so. If this would be the reason then all the surgical equipment of Hospital would have been made from copper NOT Stainless Steel.
"The U.S. American steel penny failed because it would oxidate too quickly, and I'm pretty sure that stainless steel wouldn't oxidate as quickly as "regular steel" so there must be a reason why governments don't just issue stainless steel low denomination coins."
Incorrect, the US steel cent was a success. It was issued in 1943, during WWII, in order to permit copper to be used for the war effort. Once the shortage was no longer an issue, the Mint went back to bronze. Additionally, it was called a "steel" cent, but it was actually zinc plated steel.
Currently, it costs more than a cent to produce the US copper plated aluminum cent; thus, I keep hoping it will just be eliminated (rounding-off to the nearest five-cents works well).
Quote: "Steve27"
Currently, it costs more than a cent to produce the US copper plated aluminum cent; thus, I keep hoping it will just be eliminated (rounding-off to the nearest five-cents works well).
Copper plated zinc, they need to drop the penny and the nickle.
Taking a break from swapping for a while, but still interested in pre 1799 Spanish coins, I will make time for that!
Most of the 1943 Steel pennies I've encountered are horribly rusted/corroded, whereas I have plenty of stainless steel Italian/Albanian coins from the 1936-43 period that are just fine, so if a material change is going to happen I think stainless steel makes far more sense from numismatic, economic and practical standpoints.
That being said I fully support eliminating pennies and other practically worthless low denomination coins from circulation; although to appease my numismatic disapproval I would continue including them and minting them in proof sets.
