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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 4743521, member: 44316&quot;]Experiments have shown that a copper-silver alloy with c. 15% silver and maybe even as low as 10% silver, or more will, when struck, have the silver squeeze to the surface (because it is more malleable), giving the appearance, at least for a while in circulation, of a silver coin. Higher percentages of silver &quot;will permit a reasonably good silver surface to be obtained in the normal course of minting&quot; [Lawrence Cope, page 270, &quot;Surface-silvered ancient coins&quot; in <i>Methods of Chemical and Metallurgical Investigation of Ancient Coinage</i>, RNS Special Publication 8]. The &quot;surfacing-silvering&quot; techniques used under Aurelian and later emperors, whatever they were, that were used for coins with a lower concentration of silver, were not necessary for Syrian tetradrachms or Roman coins of the early and mid-third century.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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