My son and I are just starting collecting, and are attempting to learn as much about our coins as possible. Is there a standard source for the metals used for common world coins? We have been unable to locate such an information source on the web. Specifically, we are now trying to find out what a 1952 Austrian 1 Schilling coin is made out of. Any information or pointers you can provide will be much appreciated. Mike and Sam Willner
Howdy Mike - Welcome to the Forum !! The Krause catalogs, Standard Catalog of World Coins, are the best way. But there is an on-line source. Try this - Numismaster
The 1 Schilling coins used between the late 1950s and late 1990s were Cu 915 Al 085. But I think the earlier type was an aluminum piece ... Christian
All early shilling coins were silver - British, Australian, New Zealand, etc. And as far as I know Australia never had aluminium coinage
They weren't talking about a shilling from Australia, but a schilling froam Austria (neighbour of Switzerland). As chrisild already stated, Austian 1 schilling-coins were of silver (pre WW II), aluminum (KM#2871 1946-1957) and aluminum-bronze (KM#2886 1969-2001)
Sign up for a free account at www.numismaster.com and you can spend a lot of time there looking up details on coins. Trust me, I have....
You can often find a little bit older Krause catalog from back when they cover 1780 to date for just a few dollars. They are easily found at coin shows. The only thing wrong with these is that they don't list weights for the base metal coins.
