With the increasing cost of Copper, Nickel and even Iron, Iw as thinking that new metals might need to be used for coinage, inorder to free of those metal reserves for industrial purposes. One metal sort of sticks out in my mind because it is very abundant, cheap and resistant to corrosion, which is zirconium. We have a number of Metallurgist here, what are your thoughts? Ruben
There are very specific guidelines when it come to size and weight of a coin for numerous reasons. Zirconium if I remember properly an spontaneously combust. Not a very wise choice for coinage.
I wasn't sure if my memory served me correctly, but check out the MSDS. It can spontaneously combust if ground into a powder. On second thought, I think I like the idea, I own a very nice bench grinder that I hardly ever use anymore. I can save money on fireworks and spend it on coins instead. http://www.espimetals.com/index.php/online-catalog/316-zirconium
Greater minds than mine have been at work on this issue, so I will just report what they have already found. Of course, the US has been using copper-clad zinc for the Lincoln cent since 1982. Zinc oxidizes too readily to recommend its use as a solo metal (see German wartime coins), but an aluminum-magnesium alloy could hold up well and, clad on a zinc base, would be an inexpensive coin to produce. Another inexpensive alternative could be a clad coin with a base metal of steel. The UK has been using copper-clad steel for the 1p and 2p "bronze" coins since 1992 (except the 1998 2p), and this past January began releasing nickel-clad steel for the 5p and 10p. An important consideration, though, is that changing the weights and especially the magnetic properties of coins will cause many downstream issues for businesses that depend on coin-sorting devices. By the way, David Hamric, the owner of Mettalium, Inc. has made a series of coins from the elements for collectors. He reported that the zirconium coin was "the hardest, toughest metal we have worked with up to this point, harder than hafnium or molybdenum." You can read more about his results with each metal at: http://www.elementsales.com/ecoins_desc.htm#Zr
The U.S mint struck experimental bronze clad steel cents along with the aluminum cents in 1973. I believe they also experimented with plastic cents during WWll.
Plastic might work. They could save on re-tooling by outsourcing to china. Plastic money made in china. That sounds about right.
