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 .500 Fine Gold Coins - What's the alloy?		  New Topic  New Poll New Poll
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Country
1000+ Penny Miser Member


USA
1617 Posts
Posted - 10/25/2009 :  20:22:16  Show Profile Send Country a Private Message  Reply with Quote
From 1974 onwards, many countries have had their gold coins minted with a .500 fineness of gold. Countries include: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Fiji, Turks&Caicos, and others. I know that these are 50% gold by weight and they all appear to have a mellowed golden tone.

What metals are in the composition of the alloy in the other 50%?

zerocd
Penny Pincher Member



115 Posts
Posted - 10/26/2009 :  12:57:27  Show Profile Send zerocd a Private Message  Reply with Quote
When gold is not 24k, I find it difficult to know for sure what the other part is. I had always understood it was silver but that must have been a childhood myth.

Please post links to whatever you find.

0CD
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Robarons
Penny Collector Member



USA
370 Posts
Posted - 10/26/2009 :  13:38:06  Show Profile Send Robarons a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I would say copper makes up a good part of the other metal.

Silver may be present, but it is found more in White Gold Rather than Yellow Gold.
Robber Baron= Robarons
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jadedragon
Administrator



Canada
2819 Posts
Posted - 10/27/2009 :  02:10:37  Show Profile Send jadedragon a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I like these research projects. It's fun to learn about coins and more importantly the events and items they depict, the metals they contain, the symbols and the history.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4644674/description.html about making golden coins with no gold (think $1 coins)
http://www.predecimal.com/euroarticle.htm interesting but not answering the question.


http://metaldetectingworld.com/cleaning_coin_p2_coin_metals.shtml
"The basic gold alloys are: Red Gold - 90% gold and 10% copper; White Gold - 90% gold and 10% silver; Electrum - about 30% gold and 70% silver."

I also learned that countries use a wide variety of alloys which explains the various colors of gold coins we see.

http://www.rosegold.co.uk/goldalloysbyvolume.html
"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things." - Leonardo da Vinci
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Country
1000+ Penny Miser Member



USA
1617 Posts
Posted - 10/27/2009 :  07:29:34  Show Profile Send Country a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thanks Jadedragon for doing all that research. While the .500 fineness gold alloy (12 carat) isn't enumerated, extrapolating from the gold alloys for 9 carat and 14 carat, the 12 carat alloy probably is composed of 4-10% silver, 31-45% copper, and around 7% zinc.
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moboman
1000+ Penny Miser Member



USA
2260 Posts
Posted - 10/28/2009 :  10:06:14  Show Profile Send moboman a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Wow thanks jadedragon, always looking to learn more.
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