Aluminum coins?

I can't say I get excited over them. I have picked up some Aluminum medals, notably from the Chicago World's Fair, and some Alaskan tokens. After one or two, I have shyed away from others. They remind me of cheap souvenirs you buy and then wish you hadn't.

 

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Not sure if our old Tax tokens of the not to distant past were and/or are considered coins but some of thoes were made of plastic and some of Aluminum. I've still got some from Missouri. The .001 were mostly of plastic and came in Red or Green. The only .005 I have and/or remember were of Aluminum.
The problem with an Aluminum coin is for the metal itself, it would have no real value. For a coin of Aluminum to be worth a Nickel it would have to be hugh. Therefore an Aluminum coin would have to be sort of like out currency, only worth what is printed on them. Also, imagine the ease in counterfeiting.
Yes once Aluminum was a precious metal and now it is one of the most common metals on Earth.

 

Hmm, the face value of any modern coin does not have anything to do with its metal content. Sure, you would not really want an aluminum coin to be very small (dime sized and that light may not be a good idea ), but a huge alu coin would not be a practical option either ...

Christian

 

Actually it's a bit problimatic because believe it or not aluminum is actually very hard on dies and tends to wear them out fairly quickly. The problem is that bare aluminum is very reactive and almost immediately develops a coating of aluminum oxide. This coating then protects the metal from further oxidation. he problem comes when you strike the planchet and the metal expands outward dragging that oxide coating with it over the surface of the die. Another name for aluminum oxide is carborundum which had a hardness rating of 9, just below that of diamond. It is the same abrasive found on the best sandpapers. One way o avoid the problem would possibly be to continue coper plating the blanks. The copper would protect the dies from the oxide coating.

Gold? No. But it was on a par with silver, a little over a dollar an oz at the time.

The Louisiana Tax tokens were made of aluminum and I believe several other states hade aluminun tokens as well.