Favorite (and least favorite) Coin Metal

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Hi Numista Members,


I'm very green/new when it comes to participating here on the forum, but have thoroughly enjoyed reading other posts. My interest was piqued when reading some comments about what others collect in terms of the metal coins are made of (or what coins they are opposed to). I thought I'd open a thread to allow others to voice their favorite coin material and why - as well as their least favorite and why. It seems there is quite the spectrum - what one person likes, the other despises. I'm excited and curious to see the topic from a variety of viewpoints.

Here's mine:

Favorite: Copper-Nickel - it seems NOT to be subject to verdigris, nor tarnish, holds up pretty well over time, and tends to be inexpensive making the coins much more affordable

Least favorite: Aluminum - no heft to the coins, so they feel "fake" to me

I'd welcome other views!
Although my main focus is copper / bronze, silver coin age so beautifully it's hard to not want them.

Zinc is my least favorite material. It corrodes easily, attracts the nasty white bloom and very quickly take on an almost black tone which makes the details almost impossible to see. It's a real challenge to find acceptable 1 - 10 Reichpfennigs made from this most unwise choice of material.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
I don't have a real favourite. Silver, nickel, copper, brass and gold all have their unique characteristics which make me like them. I do however not like zinc coins as they just tarnish too easily.
Least favorite: zinc (they tone black)
Favorite: I like silver colored coins, which means silver and platinum. However, proof silver tends to develop haze (which I hate), and platinum is way too expensive. So perhaps titanium?

Quote: "Steve27"​Least favorite: zinc (they tone black)
​Favorite: I like silver colored coins, which means silver and platinum. However, proof silver tends to develop haze (which I hate), and platinum is way too expensive. So perhaps titanium?


​I share the sentiments of other members about zinc, although saw someone post once they collected zinc coins specifically!

Nice pics here!! Thanks for posting! Titanium, now I imagine that holds up quite well over time!! Didn't realize they even made coins out of titanium. Next they'll make coins out of tungsten and even centuries later all coins will be EF.
For obvious reasons, silver and gold tend to be the favourites for many collectors. Mine is aluminium and I don't know why. Maybe due the weird heaviness, color, or simply the decades when it was more commonly used.
The least favorite is zinc. The black tone don't catch my eyes at all.
Stainless Steel and Nickel are always overlooked. They capture the engravers intentions nicely and can circulate for decades with little wear. Those things are indestructable.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
Silver for me, a fairly generic choice.
But My least favourite, like many others is zinc- I've had a zinc coin literally break in half (like a cracker) in my hands once.
Favorite is bronze. Hands down.
Least favorite. Ugh... Nordic Gold. What the bleep is that good for?
Ard
Favorite metal: silver, it looks much better even than gold. Also I like copper/bronze coins.
Least favorite: nordic gold
Favourite - Silver, over half my collection is silver.

least favourite - Iron. Although it's pretty cool, it's really difficult to fond an older iron coin that isn't corroded/rusted.
Bronze/Copper is nice for toning, while nickel is indestructible thing. I like both, plus I am fan of brass because of color. I also like tin, for no actual reason. Maybe because you have to be careful handling it.

My least favourite is not 100x times above-said zinc or iron. It is lead, I would have hard times even touching it.
Catalogue administrator
Frosted/Cameo Silver for me. :love:

Zinc I used hate, simply because of how tricky it can behave when using around heat. I have worked on a few that instantly turned into a blob and dropped onto worktop. All had the white looking staining and was my first few before I learned how to not turn the coin into a blob of zinc.

Most coins with ailments are a challenge to me that I relish, but Aluminium is probably the one I dislike the most because it feels cheap and can be easily damaged.
Restoration addict : Verdigris Removal : Zinc White spot removal : Iron Rust Removal : Silver brooch/necklace mount Removal
Copper / bronze are by far my favourite.

I do not really have a least favourite as I am more of a design person. If it was made of "road apples" and looked appealing, I would still want it.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.  It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so.  Mark Twain
favourite: Billon
Hated: Multi-ply brass plated steel. the stuff new loonies are made of.

loruca
I collect anything: If it's Italian or Italian states i collect it even more!
I don't necessarily have a favourite but my least favourite is Tin. It's always a nightmare to get a decent tin coin from many years ago, especially the William & Mary or James II issues with the copper plug !
If I were to make an apples-to-apples comparison and assumed all coins were in UNC, I'd have to say I always like bimetallics, copper, nordic gold and silver.

I hate those Russian 2 rubles coins from the early 2000's though. I think they are some composition of Cu-Ni-Zn; however I regard that greenish tinge to the coin as a puke colour. Dislike zinc too, but only because its hard to make out the details once it completely blackens
Outings administrator
Most favored: silver (the shiniest of all metals) and stainless steel (very hard metal, so coins remain in mint-like condition for a long time)
Neutral: copper, nickel, their alloys, aluminium, aluminium-bronze, and various exotic metals like titanium and niobium
Disfavored: brass, Nordic gold - dirt/fingerprint magnets
Strongly disfavored: zink, tin, iron
HoH
I like Cu-Ni coins, they are durable, don't wear easily and don't tarnish too badly. For me the worst metal, by far is zinc. People have already mentioned the reasons for it.
Trade only within the US.
I don't have the one favorite Coin Metal.
But i of course i have Coin Metals i like more than others.
The Metals i like are
Silver and Gold,
Copper-Nickel and Nickel
"MAGNIMAT" (Copper-Nickel clad Nickel and Nickelbrass clad Nickel)
Copper and Bronze.
Aluminium-Bronze (Nordic Gold)
And Bi- and Tri-Matallic Coins of these Materials.

Stainless steel can be beautyful, but the Reliefs are often too flat on them because of the very hard Metal (if you look at the Italian 50 and 100 Lire Coins from the 50ies to the 90ies you will understand what i mean. Beautiful designs but sometimes hard to see with all details).

I don't like very much, but i have to live with the Victoriy of this Material is
Nickel plated Steel, Copper plated Steel.
The Nickel is often too shiny and the Steel so hard. I saw that with the Material change for the Russian 1, 2, 5 Rouble coins. The Cu-Ni Coins are very beautyful, the Nickel plated Steel ones are too, but the Relief is too flat and the Material often too shiny to see the Details.
Copper plated Steel is not that extreme.

Aluminium is not too bad, because if the coins are not too long in circulation, the Reliefs are often very detailed.
But the weight of the metal is too low. It feels like toy.

I don't like:
Brass and Brass plated Steel. Brass is looking bad so quickly in circulation.
The worst are the German Brass clad Steel 5 and 10 Pfennigs from 1949 to 2001. They look great when they are new, but very short after they are in circulation you see Fingerprints on them and they are getting more and more ugly. Plus this stupid Steel rim which seems to be made for quick corrosion.
I miss the D-Mark in circulation. But i really don't miss this Copper clad Steel 1 and 2 Pfennigs and the Brass clad Steel 5 and 10 Pfennig. The Design was great.

But the worst Metal for coins ever is, like many others wrote, Zinc. It looks bad if the coins are not new. You get grey fingers....
The only reason to collect Zinc coins is the History they tell (mostly about war and "bad times" for the country they are from).
Even with a very nice design they look bad bacause of the Zinc.
Zinc is obviously a bad material for coins, but I almost always find zinc coins interesting for their history.

I really like silver for the many different ways it tones, copper and bronze for similar reasons, stainless steel because it retains a design nearly indefinitely (e.g., the Italian coins of the '30s and '40s). Aluminum seems like it makes a flimsy and worthless feeling coin, but I have a real soft spot for the many beautiful designs rendered in aluminum for the French colonial states.

The only metals I don't care for are plated coins like the copper-plated zinc US cents, or nickel-plated steel coins in Britain, Canada, etc. They seem false and superficial to me, not something that holds intrinsic value the way a silver coin does.
Thank you all so much for responding - it has been a fascinating read.
Quote: "Houseofham"​ ​Disfavored: brass, Nordic gold - dirt/fingerprint magnets
​​
​ I'm glad, Houseofham, that you mentioned a reason for a distaste for Nordic gold. I hadn't noticed a specific attraction to dirt/fingerprints more-so than on other coin metals.
Like many others I like silver and gold for their appearence, potential toning or the lack their off. For base metals it's nickel for its ability to resist the environment.

I'm off two minds in the case of copper and its alloys. They have great visual potentials but are also prone to very ugly corrosion.

My least favourite is like most others zinc mostly for the corrosion spots. But thats not realy the fault of zinc but other elements that were not removed from it because of the war (it needed to be as cheap as possible).
You won't have this problem with zinc blanks that were made in peace times.

Even worse at least in regions where it can get colder than 16°C would be tin for the property of changing its cristalstructure in colder temperatures and in the process destroying itself. Carry your tin coins around in the minus tempertures of winter and shortly after all you have left is tin dust.
I'm sorry to say that I have to jump on the hate train for zinc. It's a fine metal but all my zinc coins look so muddy.

I love bronze, and steel is underrated. I think someone said that already and I have to agree. Steel keeps some nice detail for a long time. Silver is of course always beautiful too. I like it from mirror shine to dark tarnish.
Favorite: Gold. It says everything.

Least favorite: Aluminium.
ROMAE AETERNAE
My favorites are silver and bronze. My least favorite is zinc-zinc coins don't age very well.
Quote: "Idolenz"​My least favourite is like most others zinc mostly for the corrosion spots. But thats not realy the fault of zinc but other elements that were not removed from it because of the war (it needed to be as cheap as possible).
​You won't have this problem with zinc blanks that were made in peace times.

​Even worse at least in regions where it can get colder than 16°C would be tin for the property of changing its cristalstructure in colder temperatures and in the process destroying itself. Carry your tin coins around in the minus tempertures of winter and shortly after all you have left is tin dust.
​I agree with you about tin - which is why it is my least favorite coin metal (even beyond zinc). I mean, don't get me wrong, I love tin coins for their history, so I actually have quite a few of them (and would like to get even more), but every time I buy something tin I'm always afraid it will crumble on me next winter. How did they deal with that in Japan?
And, that explains why my 1959 Peru centavo looks so good. I had a double take when I saw "zinc" in the description - I was pretty sure it was aluminium! Really nice design though, which is what I bought it for.
Someone mentioned iron; it occupies a position similar to zinc, except with more history (zinc coins sometimes aren't historical, iron coins almost always are - if it wasn't a hard time they'd use steel). EDIT: also, iron rust is less obviously ugly.

In terms of least favorite metals that I actually dislike in terms of collecting... copper plated steel. (But not brass plated steel, which is actually pretty nice.) It's a total fingerprint magnet, and somehow looks totally unnatural, like the coin was made for collectors, even if it wasn't. OTOH, when it gets particularly worn, it just looks like copper, which makes it a lot nicer.
(Copper plated zinc should have been even worse, because it combines most of the negatives of zinc and copper plated steel. But somehow it doesn't look that bad in reality.)
Quote: "ashlobo"I hate those Russian 2 rubles coins from the early 2000's though. I think they are some composition of Cu-Ni-Zn; however I regard that greenish tinge to the coin as a puke colour. Dislike zinc too, but only because its hard to make out the details once it completely blackens
Sorry for asking, but where, exactly, are you getting Russian 2 ruble coins from the early 2000s in such low grades that they end up with greenish tinges?
Either you mean the Gagarin commemorative (and/or the Hero Cities series) - in which case you're probably correct, though somewhat unfortunately, as they are all quite beautiful, and I have no problem with the color either - or (more likely) you're probably just referring to PVC damage from mint/proof sets (typical for being stored in the wrong sort of plastic), in which case this is hardly unique to Russian coins specifically (perhaps those are just the only coins you have in mint sets).
I have an old Israeli coin set in (original) PVC plastic - and I can agree that it is very not pretty (though the designs are nice enough to partially offset that); but it's mostly a question of packaging, not metal, and I can't think of any coin metal it doesn't affect (except perhaps gold).

Oh, right, I forgot to name my favorite metal; I'm not really sure, so I'll be conservative and say silver.
Japanese war time coins are out of a zinc-tin alloy and probably contain not very much tin (but I don't know the actual composition). But this mixture has to play a roll that those coins aren't as affected as one might think.

I haven't written the second quote but I also have seen the light green hue on these russian coins. So I would think it's the specific alloy that has this reflection property and it's not copper corrosion or leaching plasticizer.
Quote: "Idolenz"​Japanese war time coins are out of a zinc-tin alloy and probably contain not very much tin (but I don't know the actual composition). But this mixture has to play a roll that those coins aren't as affected as one might think.

​I haven't written the second quote but I also have seen the light green hue on these russian coins. So I would think it's the specific alloy that has this reflection property and it's not copper corrosion or leaching plasticizer.
​I didn't realize that would affect it. That makes sense.
And, I actually agree about the light green hue (though I don't dislike it, as such); it's a different thing...

You see, the type you mentioned was, for the most part, produced in the late 1990s (1997-99, though the 1999 is scarce), and the next type in the late 2000s (2006-09).
The latter was also made in 2002 and 2003 - for sets only, and the former in 2001 - perhaps not for sets only but with a similar or smaller mintage (this is one of the rarest dates of modern Russian "circulating" coinage).
As such, if ashlobo really has a coin from "the early 2000s", it is likely in a mint set, and thus any discoloration on it is more likely to be PVC than regular tarnish. (That or he thinks the alloy is naturally this color - I think of it as more yellowish, personally, but I hadn't looked closely at a 2002 mint set, anyway.)

There were also a few commemoratives in that denomination made in 2000 and 2001, which are a lot more likely to be found in circulated condition than the non-commemorative 2001-03 coins (and, to be honest, a lot more likely to be found in any condition, because the mintages are about a thousand times larger, but they're probably more common circulated even proportionally).
I happened to have a 2000 commemorative 2 ruble nearby (it was a recent circulation find), so I checked it and it really was a bit greenish (presumably from circulation).
As such, I thought that, if it wasn't the PVC explanation, ashlobo was probably referring to those coins (though in this case it was unclear why would he talk about those coins specifically, as, to the best of my knowledge, they have the same alloy as the non-commemoratives; meanwhile, the 2002 is one of the most common Russian mint sets, even aside from including a few set-only dates, so it would make sense to have one).

Realistically, of course, ashlobo most likely just meant the late 1990s and/or late 2000s coins and mixed up the dates a bit, and I was just being silly. But whatever.

I've fixed the quote, incidentally (it was an uncorrected kludge from my attempt to avoid a double post; this forum doesn't allow native multi-quote replies, so I copied your quote box for the second quote and forgot to adjust for it being from a different user).
I agree with many by saying that my least favourite metal is zinc, and for the reasons already given.

As for the best, I would say gold. It's a stable element that doesn't tarnish, of a nice rich yellow colour, and very heavy ─ much more satisfying to hold a gold coin than a light aluminum coin.

Still, aluminum certainly makes sense for low denominations, and it doesn't corrode easily, at least when it's used normally as currency.

As for nickel, it also has great properties, including the fact that it doesn't corrode easily (if at all), but it is quite hard, which means that coin designs tend to be less intricate than for most other coining metals. On the Mohs Scale of hardness, gold, silver, aluminum, zinc and copper are all between 2.5 and 3, while nickel, iron, and steel are in the 4 to 4.5 range. (I'm not sure how cupro-nickel and other such alloys range.)

In Canada, when we went from silver to nickel in the mid to late 1960s, they had to reduce the diameter of the 50¢ coin (from this to that) because it was too difficult to strike it to the same standards in nickel as they had in silver.
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Quote: "Camerinvs"​I agree with many by saying that my least favourite metal is zinc, and for the reasons already given.

​As for the best, I would say gold. It's a stable element that doesn't tarnish, of a nice rich yellow colour, and very heavy ─ much more satisfying to hold a gold coin than a light aluminum coin.

​Still, aluminum certainly makes sense for low denominations, and it doesn't corrode easily, at least when it's used normally as currency.

​As for nickel, it also has great properties, including the fact that it doesn't corrode easily (if at all), but it is quite hard, which means that coin designs tend to be less intricate than for most other coining metals. On the Mohs Scale of hardness, gold, silver, aluminum, zinc and copper are all between 2.5 and 3, while nickel, iron, and steel are in the 4 to 4.5 range. (I'm not sure how cupro-nickel and other such alloys range.)

​In Canada, when we went from silver to nickel in the mid to late 1960s, they had to reduce the diameter of the 50¢ coin (from this to that) because it was too difficult to strike it to the same standards in nickel as they had in silver.
​When dealing with a "hard" metal, the solution is annealing. The US New Orleans "O" Mint Morgan silver dollars are notorious for their weak strikes. The reason as to why this happened appears to be too low a temperature was applied to the planchets in the annealing furnace.

Nickel and nickel alloys can also be annealed, so if Canada changed the planchet size to accommodate the use of nickel, it was probably because they didn't want to change their annealing process. Additionally, I've seen very intricate designs using nickel and other hard metals, and again I believe it mostly due to the desire of the mint to make as many coins per minute as they can, which limits the amount of relief the coins can have, i.e. it's not the metal it's the economics.

I couldn't help but notice titanium is listed as a hardness of 6.
Quote: "Steve27"​​​When dealing with a "hard" metal, the solution is annealing. The US New Orleans "O" Mint Morgan silver dollars are notorious for their weak strikes. The reason as to why this happened appears to be too low a temperature was applied to the planchets in the annealing furnace.

​Nickel and nickel alloys can also be annealed, so if Canada changed the planchet size to accommodate the use of nickel, it was probably because they didn't want to change their annealing process. Additionally, I've seen very intricate designs using nickel and other hard metals, and again I believe it mostly due to the desire of the mint to make as many coins per minute as they can, which limits the amount of relief the coins can have, i.e. it's not the metal it's the economics.

​I couldn't help but notice titanium is listed as a hardness of 6.


​I agree, and that's why I said "tend to be less intricate".

The titanium coin is a collectors' issue (not a real coin so far as I am concerned), but to use the same process required for a decent strike for regular coinage would be extremely expensive. Looking at it, I'm wondering whether the obvious flatness in the very center of the design wasn't so designed to help the striking of the much more prominent queen's portrait on the obverse. Still, an interesting choice of metal... By the way, even when they were struck in silver, the Canadian 50¢ were notorious for showing weakness on the reverse side, in the shield, where the head of the king is most prominent on the obverse.

The Canadian dollar was also reduced in size with the transition silver → nickel. James Haxby in Striking Impression (1983) points that out, but also that the 5¢ coin had to be redesigned from 12-sided (a shape which came about during the War) to round because of the use of nickel. The 12-sided ferrule/collar would break too easily because of the hardness of nickel.
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By the way, I see that Gibraltar has done the same hilarious mistake as Canada. They celebrated the penultimate year of the second millennium (1999), the ultimate year as well (2000), but not the start of the new, third millennium, which happened on January 1st 2001 !! :8D

EDIT: As I am looking into the life of Sir (later Baronet) Robert Chalmers (he who wrote A History of Currency in the British Colonies, 1893), I came across this history of Gibraltar coinage, a government publication:

http://www.gibraltarnationalmint.gov.gi/GibraltarCoinageHigh.pdf

And for those interested in New Brunswick copper coinages:

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/viewFile/12035/12879
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Favourite - Silver, although it tarnishes easily and is quite soft.
Nickel - Nice and durable and I love it when its shiny

Least Favourite - Aluminium, cheap and nasty and wears badly. Coins light and feel like pogs more than coins. Always used for the cheapest and lowest denominations like 1 sen, 1 cent, 1/2 centavo, 5 paisa etc. The fact most poor communist countries used it says everything (East Germany, all but the 20 Pfennig and 5 mark were aluminium - circulation coins not commems) and Hungary and Poland were virtually all Aluminium.

Zinc comes close as its dark and ugly and hard to read, but was not really used much after WW2.
I love coins
Quote: "January First-of-May"
Quote: "Idolenz"​Japanese war time coins are out of a zinc-tin alloy and probably contain not very much tin (but I don't know the actual composition). But this mixture has to play a roll that those coins aren't as affected as one might think.
​​
​​I haven't written the second quote but I also have seen the light green hue on these russian coins. So I would think it's the specific alloy that has this reflection property and it's not copper corrosion or leaching plasticizer.
​​I didn't realize that would affect it. That makes sense.
​And, I actually agree about the light green hue (though I don't dislike it, as such); it's a different thing...

​You see, the type you mentioned was, for the most part, produced in the late 1990s (1997-99, though the 1999 is scarce), and the next type in the late 2000s (2006-09).
​The latter was also made in 2002 and 2003 - for sets only, and the former in 2001 - perhaps not for sets only but with a similar or smaller mintage (this is one of the rarest dates of modern Russian "circulating" coinage).
​As such, if ashlobo really has a coin from "the early 2000s", it is likely in a mint set, and thus any discoloration on it is more likely to be PVC than regular tarnish. (That or he thinks the alloy is naturally this color - I think of it as more yellowish, personally, but I hadn't looked closely at a 2002 mint set, anyway.)

​There were also a few commemoratives in that denomination made in 2000 and 2001, which are a lot more likely to be found in circulated condition than the non-commemorative 2001-03 coins (and, to be honest, a lot more likely to be found in any condition, because the mintages are about a thousand times larger, but they're probably more common circulated even proportionally).
​I happened to have a 2000 commemorative 2 ruble nearby (it was a recent circulation find), so I checked it and it really was a bit greenish (presumably from circulation).
​As such, I thought that, if it wasn't the PVC explanation, ashlobo was probably referring to those coins (though in this case it was unclear why would he talk about those coins specifically, as, to the best of my knowledge, they have the same alloy as the non-commemoratives; meanwhile, the 2002 is one of the most common Russian mint sets, even aside from including a few set-only dates, so it would make sense to have one).

​Realistically, of course, ashlobo most likely just meant the late 1990s and/or late 2000s coins and mixed up the dates a bit, and I was just being silly. But whatever.

​I've fixed the quote, incidentally (it was an uncorrected kludge from my attempt to avoid a double post; this forum doesn't allow native multi-quote replies, so I copied your quote box for the second quote and forgot to adjust for it being from a different user).
​Just seeing your reply to my post on those Russian coins I talked about. Hopefully I did not offend you in case it seemed I was trash talking Russian coins ! I wish I could scan the coins for you, but unfortunately they are sitting in Bombay while I now live in Toronto. I got them in a swap years ago; all in unc Or au, but certainly not part of mint sets because I swapped very common Indian coins for them. Here's an example

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces6691.html

theyre certainly not your regular grey coloured cu-ni coins; I have no idea what else mixed into them; but they do definitely have a green hue unlike the 5 ruble commems you get these days
Outings administrator

Not that crazy about nickel plated steel or other cheap muck metals being used now either.

I love coins

ardFavorite is bronze. Hands down.
Least favorite. Ugh... Nordic Gold. What the bleep is that good for?
Ard

Agreed. Loses shine very easily, looks bland.

Silver is my favorite and i don't like nordic gold.

Hello there! I am a coin referee for Sweden and love collecting old coins! Happy coin collecting! 🪙

My Favorites would be Silver and Gold, they look the best, sound the best and are nicely dense.

I also like Nickel and Cupronickel coins if they're made right.

 

Least favorite is tied between Steel and Zinc.

Steel is the cheapest metal doesn't sound or feel right, especially when it's almost always used a substitute for more valuable metals and plated in them to hide the fact that it's steel.  I guess you could make a good steel coin, but it always will feel like cheap imitation Nickel to me.

Zinc corrodes too fast for me to have any respect for it as a coinage metal and it also looks ugly even when it's not corroded.  Zinc is so cheap and corrodes so quickly, it kind of eliminates one of the main aspects of coinage, its permanence.  In 500 years, no Zinc coins will exist above VF condition and in 1000 they'll all have corroded into Zinc enriched dust.  For all the hate Aluminum gets for being light and cheap, at least it doesn't corrode like Zinc does.

copper, bronze, cupronickel, silver

Any alloy on a coin I don't have! Why be difficult?

Globetrotter
Coin varieties in French:
https://monnaiesetvarietes.numista.com

I have two very clear answers:

- the least favourite metal is ZINC, zinc coins become ugly and unreadable, and there is no way to improve them

- the most favourite is bronze, bronze coins are nice when new and are nice when are old. Think, e.g., of the big penny from UK and Commonwealth countries

CirculableCoins

yarnmisery

copper, bronze, cupronickel, silver

i forgot to mention acmonital is my favorite of all time

yarnmisery

 

i forgot to mention acmonital is my favorite of all time

My favourite metal is also acmonital (or other types stainless steel, but the Italian version seems to be the best). Normally these coins stay very well preserved after many years in circulation.

And the least favourite - copper plated steel. It becomes ugly just with one fingerprint.

ciscoins

yarnmisery

 

i forgot to mention acmonital is my favorite of all time

My favourite metal is also acmonital (or other types stainless steel, but the Italian version seems to be the best). Normally these coins stay very well preserved after many years in circulation.

And the least favourite - copper plated steel. It becomes ugly just with one fingerprint.

 

ive got an acmonital 50 lire coin thats beautifully preserved, even for a 1977 coin.

As a general rule, anything silver coloured I like or at least prefer, anything gold I dislike. Goes for coins, jewellery (not that I wear any), even things like door handles. No idea why, just always been my taste.

 

I like the coins to also have a bit of weight behind them too. So favourites are things like silver, steel, nickel or alloys therof, but not so much aluminium or zinc.

 

Not a fan of gold or Nordic gold coins.

 

Might also be me, but I feel detail looks stronger on a silver proof than a gold proof. Probably all in my head though. 😛

Most favourite: silver and aluminum bronze.

Silver sounds the best, is quite dense and has a good heat conductivity, so it feels very good in hand, plus it can develop beautiful patina. Aluminum bronze is beautiful, specially if in mint state.

Least favourite: zinc and iron. They corrode very easily.

Aluminium is the absolute worst, bar none. Myanmar released a set of Aung San commemorative coins as part of their currency, in aluminium; even though they're only about 50-60 years old now, it's almost impossible to find them in an undamaged state. You cannot put them with other coins, and you have to handle them with kid gloves, or they get scratched and deformed immediately.

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