Copper coin

“ When the plate was exposed to the vapour of mercury the result was the same, but, when the vapour was wiped off, the gold and silver coins only had left permanent images on the copper. These impressions are often minutely perfect, whether the coins are in actual contact with the plate or one-eighth of an inch above it. The mass of the metal has a material influence on the result; a large copper coin makes a better impression on a copper plate than a small silver coin. When coins of different metals are placed on the same plate they interfere with each other. ”

“ This bears cruelly on the labouring classes and all who are paid in copper coin. Owing to exchange with Europe keeping above silver, that metal cannot be imported and coined, so as to give a gain to the Mint-master, who has no idea of sacrificing any of the great profit he has made on copper. ”

“ Money is made of copper, too.
Tut. It is; for it takes an impression in coining very well, and its value is a proper proportion below silver, for a price for the cheapest commodities. In some poor countries they have little other than copper coin. Another great use of copper is as an ingredient in mixed metals, such as bell-metal, cannon-metal, and particularly brass.
Har. But brass is yellow.
Tut. True; it is converted to that colour by means of another metallic substance, named zinc or spelter, the natural colour of which is white. A kind of brown stone called calamine is an ore of zinc. ”

“ The intrinsic value of the copper, however, bore so little relation to the value given to it, that it was a very productive business to counterfeit it, of which many unprincipled individuals availed themselves to such an extent, that it had almost become an openly exercised branch of industry all through the republic. When Santa Anna became provisional President, he ordered that all the copper coin, whose currency was now reduced to six or eight per cent, below par, should be given in to certain deposits which he named, promising to repay it in genuine coin of real value. ”

“ The gold pressure continued for about five years, when it was relieved by the creation of a Government assay office in New York, and a branch mint at San Francisco. But directly sequent to this came the change of standard in silver coin, causing an immense recoinage in small pieces. Thus our daily assays continued to count by hundreds. This lasted for some years. When it began to slacken off, a law was passed for calling in the large copper coins and issuing in their stead pieces of copper-nickel alloy of much smaller size. ”

“ Industrial leaders at a recent forum in London predicted that the world price for refined copper would rise to $1.05 per pound in the next two months 2. Approximately two weeks after the prediction was made, the market price of copper reached $1.05. It is evident that the government must be prepared for the possibility that cents will be produced at a cost which exceeds the face value of the coin unless a cheaper material is substituted for the bronze alloy which is currently being used. ”

“ Little trouble will be found to exist in the way of false coin—far less than in Italy. The one difficulty is to follow the paper drachma up and down, and not be mulcted to a greater or less extent in the exchange of silver for paper. The copper coins, which are either the five or ten lepta pieces, occasion no trouble, being like the Italian centesimi or English pence and ha' pennies. ”

“ Next comes the copper cent, inscribed at the mints of some provinces as worth 'one-hundredth of a dollar,' and of others as worth 'ten cash,' but never treated as correlated to the dollar; whether considered in its relation to the dollar or to the cash, it is a token coin worth intrinsically less than half its nominal value. Last comes the copper cash, the currency of the people, with a present-day value of the ten-thousandth part of a pound sterling. ”

“ But suppose there were not one single halfpenny of copper coin in this whole kingdom, (which Mr. Wood seems to intend, unless we will come to his terms, as appears by employing his emissaries to buy up our old ones at a penny in the shilling more than they pass for) it could not be any real evil to us, although it might be some inconvenience. We have many sorts of small silver coins, to which they are strangers in England ”

“ A: Since the above was written, information has been received that the late Shah, about three weeks before his death, promulgated a decree directing the Mint coinage of copper to be suspended for a term of five years, and intimating that the Customs, Post-office and Telegraph departments would accept copper coin to a certain amount in cash transactions, at a fixed rate. ”

“ It is not. There are 900 parts of pure silver and 100 parts of copper in the "trade dollar." The copper alloy is added to make the coin hard, so that it will wear well, as silver by itself would be too soft. ”

“ Silver coining was then carried on with some vigour; and the following table, showing the various descriptions of dollars coined during the last ten years, is an interesting indication of the decline of Dervish power and government; for instance, the first dollar coined by the Mahdi was made up of seven parts silver and one part copper, whereas, the last dollar, coined by the Khalifa about a year ago, is composed of two parts silver and five parts copper,—indeed, the present dollar is merely a heavy copper coin covered over with a thin layer of silver.
Coining money is a lucrative trade ”

“ In all countries with a well developed circulation the very requirements of money circulation make it necessary that the character of silver and copper tokens as money be made independent of any loss of weight in those coins. Thus, as it was in the nature of things, it appears that they serve as symbols of gold coin not because they are symbols made of silver or copper, not because they have certain value, but only in so far as they have no value. ”

“ Ralph Heaton and Son (the mint, Warstone Lane) receiving the contract in April, 1853, for 500 tons of copper coin, comprising pence, half-pence, farthings, half-farthings, and quarter-farthings. The present bronze coinage came into use December 1st, 1860, and Messrs. Heaton have had several contracts therefor since then. ”

“ Gold and copper form an alloy by fusion together. 11 parts gold and 1 copper form the alloy used for gold coin. The copper heightens the colour of the gold, and makes it harder and less liable to wear. The current gold coin, however, usually contains both silver and copper, but the weight of both does not much exceed one [Pg 224] twelfth of the whole. According to Muschenbroeck the maximum of hardness is when 7 parts of gold and 1 part of copper are united. This corresponds nearly to 6 atoms of gold and 1 of copper, the atom of gold being estimated at 66 and that of copper at 56. ”

“ The reason of all this is that the United States limits the amount of all the coins to be issued except gold, which, being the most valuable, is coined without limit. If coinage of all these metals was free, and any holder of copper, nickel, silver or gold could carry it to the mint to be coined, we would have no money but copper and nickel, because they are the cheaper metals, worth less than one-fourth of what, as coin, they purport to be. ”

“ In countries of higher civilization, but still of comparatively low prices and limited exchanges (and these last mainly internal or domestic) , silver naturally takes the place of copper as the coin medium of exchange and as the standard of value; and as more than a thousand million people are the inhabitants of such countries, silver, reckoning transactions by number and probably also by amount, is to-day the principal money metal of the world. ”

“ Occasionally one of the gold pieces can be purchased, but they are rare and bring large prices by coin collectors, being regarded as curiosities. There are a large number of counterfeits in circulation among the bullet-shaped coin, owing to the fact that a number of years ago the master of the mint, unknown to the King, manufactured an immense number of copper ticals, and being an adept in metallurgy plated them with silver, and put them in circulation. ”

“ They are not represented by any coin, except the copper cash, which is supposed to be the equivalent in value of a li of silver, but the value of which differs greatly in different districts and at different times. They have no uniform intrinsic value, being made of varying size and composition. ”

“ Among bronze remains the copper is found to vary from 67 to 95%. From the analysis of coins it appears that for their bronze coins the Greeks adhered to an alloy of copper and tin till 400 B.C., after which time they used also lead with increasing frequency. Silver is rare in their bronze coins. The Romans also used lead as an alloy in their bronze coins, but gradually reduced the quantity, and under Caligula, Nero, Vespasian and Domitian, coined pure copper coins ”

“ Gold coin of the United States is 900 fine, that is, 900 parts of every thousand is pure gold; gold coin of Great Britain is 916-2/3 fine. In each case a small amount of silver, or silver and copper, is added to give the coin the requisite hardness. The coining of gold, and also other metals, is a government monopoly in every civilized country.
The fiat value of gold throughout the commercial world is the equivalent of $20.6718 per troy ounce of fine metal; an eagle weighs, therefore, 2580 grains. ”

“ The silver and copper tokens which represent gold coin in certain spheres of circulation in the interior of the country, contain a definite quantity of silver and copper prescribed by law, but after they get into circulation, they wear off like gold coins and become even more rapidly mere phantoms, according to the rapidity and steadiness of their circulation. ”

“ Bronze Clad Steel Cladding is a manufacturing process for metallurgically bonding sheet materials. The United States is now using cupro-nickel clad copper coinage for dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollars as a substitute for the traditional silver coinage.
Copper-zinc alloys clad on low cost sheet steel have been used for coins in West Germany for many years. This class of three layer clad products offers the surface characteristics of copper-zinc alloys at a reduced total cost of raw materials. ”

“ A small United-States coin is termed a “nickel.”
Fig. 411.—Native copper.
Copper is the next metal we have to notice. It has been known for centuries. It is encountered native in many places. The Cornish copper ore is the copper pyrites. The fumes of the smelting works are very injurious, containing, as they do, arsenic and sulphur. The ground near the mines is usually bare of vegetation in consequence of the “smoke.” Sheet copper is worked into many domestic utensils, and the alloy with zinc, termed Brass, is both useful and ornamental. ”

“ Copper acquires silver, but silver does not acquire copper;
Bad coins acquire good coins, but good coins do not acquire bad coins;
A blank coin acquires a coin, but a coin does not acquire a blank coin ”

“ Little doubt is now entertained by our best numismatists that the coins of Comius and others of an earlier date than Cunobeline or the first Roman invasion, include native British mintage. There is no question, [Pg 354] at any rate, that they circulated as freely in Britain as in Gaul, and have been found in considerable quantities in many parts of the island. The iron or bronze and copper ring-money of the first century must therefore be presumed as only analogous to our modern copper coinage, and not as the sole barbarous substitute for a minted circulating medium. ”

“ Of such a Greek Tau, formed from copper, and used by the natives as money at the time of the Conquest mention is made by the chroniclers. [25] They may be right, but with the understanding that these copper pieces were not manufactured for the purpose of serving as coin, but as tools, which of course, came into market and became objects of barter, as we read the copper bells also did, besides grains of the cacao fruit, bales of cotton, axes and other articles of common necessity. ”

“ We have suffered enough already by the misconceptions on this head—even Mr. Locke was deceived by it; and by carrying this reasoning too far, a large silver coinage was issued, which in a few years disappeared with a loss to the Nation of I think 2,700,000l.—The late Lord Liverpool made an attempt on a similar principle in regard to a copper coinage. ”

“ Copper coins may be exchanged for other money.
Proviso.Sec. 35. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the treasurer of the mint to deliver the copper coins, in exchange for their legal equivalent in other money, to any persons who shall apply for them: Provided, That the sum asked for be not less than a certain amount, to be determined by the director, and that it be not so great as, in his judgment, to interfere with the capacity of the mint to supply other applicants. Copper coins transported at expense of the mint.Sec. 36. ”

“ The addition of a small quantity of alloy is found to produce this effect, without materially impairing the ductility or beauty of the metals. Although in a few countries coins are issued of almost absolute purity, such as the gold sequins of Tuscany and the silver florins of Hanover yet for the most part the coins of the world consist not of pure gold and silver, but of these metals alloyed with some other, generally copper, in definite proportions fixed by law. ”

“ The difficulty of making a lens of such magnitude perfect, or free from flaw, and its extraordinary powers could not be understood, and consequently not appreciated by them: and although in the short space of four seconds it completely melted down one of their base copper coins, when the sun was more than forty degrees beyond the meridian, it made no impression of surprize on their uninformed minds. The only enquiry they made about it was, whether the substance was crystal ”