Lewis Feuchtwanger, a German immigrant and chemist to New York City created tokens of a copper, nickel, tin, zink alloy and presented it to Congress to become official coinage. It was not approved, although cheaper and easier to produce then the current half and large cents. He still distributed thousands of these so-called Feuchtwanger cents during the small coin shortage in the 1830s and 40s. So my question - why didn't Congress approve?
Wasn't his formula called German Silver? Congress did approve a variation of his formula for the Flying Eagle and Indian Cents for the first few years. I read somewhere that the Mint Director at the time did not want US coins minted with a metal named for a foreign country.
Yes, thats right - the alloy was called German Silver - and as I have understood from Wikipedia goes under several names; Nickel silver, Maillechort, German silver,[1]Argentan,[1]new silver,[1]nickel brass,[2]albata,[3]alpacca,[4] Wiki says usual composition is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Feuchtwanger also used tin (Sn) i think. Congress said no to his composition, but I am not sure about the connection to the Flying Eagle and the early date Indian Head Cents until 1864 with 88% Cu and 12% Ni.
The funny thing is, "German silver" is a term used in English, not in German. With regard to coins, we usually say "Neusilber". And that translates to New Silver, see larssten's reply ... Christian
It's also the metal composition used in musical instrument keywork and plating and other "durable" goods (as in long lasting). I'm wondering if the composition would have been hard on die longevity and durability.
Political reasons, I assume, unless there is documented objection coming from the Mint regarding producing them on the new presses that had just been installed. I'm reminded now of a book that was for sale at the ANA Summer Seminar Library Sale in 2016. It was an original bound copy of the proceedings of the 25th Congress, or perhaps a single volume thereof, that covered 1837. Whoever bought that book might have a better answer than my guess.
I checked the documents I've transcribed for references to the Feuchtwanger composition and I didn't find the reason why it was rejected. I have Feuchtwanger's proposal, and I have questions from the Mint Director in reference to the alloy, but no answers to those questions. Though I don't have the actual document, my understanding was that examination of samples of the metal for Feuchtwanger showed and unacceptable variation in the actual composition. Also there was the problem that there was no source of nickel in the US at the time so the government would be dependent on a foreign source for the metal for our coinage. (Nickel production in the US didn't begin until 1852 or 53.)
Copper planchets were already sourced from overseas until mines in Michigan were up and running in the mid-1840s.
