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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2827597, member: 112&quot;]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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>And if you think that is strange, it isn&#039;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.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are references of similar instances in Europe.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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