I classify my coins as gold, silver or non-PM as far as cataloging them is concerned. I just got my first billon coin in the mail today a German States, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 1767 1/24 Thaler. I know it contains some silver but it is not necessarily much and an ASW cannot be assigned. So I am wondering whether to classify it as silver or non-PM. How do you see it?
Some even consider 40% halves to be billon. Mexico's 10% silver coins is in my opinion, although they generally have a ASW value in catalogs. Some ancient washes are very thin and are commonly named as such. I would go with 50% or higher being "silver" . IMO. Jim
make another category to define it better. Like 90 or 40 for 90% and 40% My inventory has a dual category. Face value and majority content. So a penny would be 0.01 and copper (for generalization) old Half Commem is 0.50 and silver ASE is ASE and silver (no denomination for*my* purposes) there's Commm and silver Set and Silver etc Categorize them as you like for your identification.
I already have them categorized and don't want to add another. The spreadsheet is a complicated VBA forms program which I wrote long ago. My only question is whether to call it silver (because it has some even though I cannot calculate a silver value), or non-PM because it has minimal silver (cannot find a silver value). Just curious as to how others see it.
Many silver coins contain copper, and when the silver "portion" is less than 50%, such an alloy will often be called billon. But unless you want to create a new category, I would call them silver. Also because quite a few modern billon coins - think of the French €10 "at face" issues with a silver content of 333/1000 - are marketed as silver pieces ... Christian
Perhaps I should call them silver and for bookkeeping purpose assign an arbitrary 33% silver. Not sure how realistic that is.
I list it in my silver content spreadsheet (I have several unidentifiable coins) and leave the purity and ASW blank. Helps remind me that I have it.
Billon isn't just a low grade alloy - it's basically a copper coin clad with silver. If the coin wears down, all the silver disappears and it basically becomes a copper coin. This NEVER happens on 40% Kennedys. I have a Danish coin (an 1807 4 skilling) in low AU-ish condition that is .25 silver in UNC and in its current condition, it is still silvered. Lower grade examples look like copper coins.
I would classify billon as non-silver if I was trying to figure out my silver 'holdings'. The amount is so variable, so low potentially, and not something I'm guessing would be significantly refine-able, so I'd not bother considering it as 'silver'. This is a personal thing not by any real definition.
In different books and articles on the subject the definition of billon varies greatly depending on the author and the particular time period in history being discussed. But as a general rule of thumb anything below 40% was considered billon. I think they struck upon the 40% number as being the minimum requirement for a coin to be considered silver because at different times and in different countries, a 50% alloy for silver coins was quite common. And billon was not always a wash or even an outer plating, sometimes it was an actual alloy. I have seen some references where it was said that a given coin only contained as little as 5% silver. But the important thing was that it did contain at least some silver, otherwise the coins were often rejected for usage by the local populace. And if you think that is strange, it isn't really. Perhaps one of the most well known examples is Mexico when it was first conquered by the Spaniards. One of the first things Cortez did once head control of the country was to begin minting coins and distributing those coins among the local populace as well as his own soldiers for use in everyday commerce. But the Indians downright refused to use the copper coins issued by the Spaniards, they simply would not accept them as being money. And this forced the Spaniards to make smaller and smaller silver coins for changing the alloy or lowering the silver content in silver coins was not permitted by Royal decree. There are references of similar instances in Europe.
Having read everyone's responses I have decided that, for me at least, the best approach is to classify them as silver but leave the fineness and ASW entries in my database empty. After all, no one has any problem as classifying Mexican 10% silver coins as bullion and I bet a lot of billon has more than 10%. Thanks to everyone for their input.
