One of my friends here in India say that he has got an Aluminium coin or possibly Zinc coin from the 19th Century USA. I couldn't find anything in the catalogue. Can anyone say for sure about this?
In 1974 I believe, the US mint produced a limited number of aluminum alloy pennies. They were trying to reduce the price of the penny. A few were released to key congressmen and a few are still around today. If this coin is a 1974 aluminum cent, it would be really expensive....
I’m pretty sure some test pattern coins where struck on aluminum in the late 1800’s. I just cant remember what. Aluminum was a precious metal back then.
Aluminum was very rare in the 19th century. I believe that one of the Tzars had a set of flatware made from aluminum as a novelty.
here’s one http://www.harrybassfoundation.org/objects.asp?id=6158 he has a few on the site if you look around. =)
Napoleon also had a set of aluminum flatware that was said to be more expensive than gold in the early 19th century..go figure.
If you think that's nuts - platinum was considered to be almost worthless. So much so that it was used by counterfeiters to fake gold coins. They used it as a base metal and then plated the coins with gold in order to pass them off as the real thing.
