Elements Used in Coins

Video Transcript

"How many times have you taken a coin out of your pocket or gotten a coin back in change and thought that you hit the bonanza because you had real silver in your hands. Hi I'm Rui and we are going to be talking about different various elements used in minting coins. If that coin that you got back in change is dated post nineteen sixty four sorry it's not real silver. There's a variety of different elements and alloys used in producing coins now in the United States and throughout the world, the most common obviously in this country has been gold, silver, copper, and nickel. But now there's everything from aluminum to bronze, even to steel depending on what was happening in the world markets and in world current events. During World War II copper became incredibly scarce because it was used in all kinds of war time materials so the United States government starting minting pennies out of steel. Now the nineteen forty three steel penny is highly collectible and highly valuable. Silver was phased out in nineteen sixty four, gold was also phased out except for specialty coins that are made primarily just for collecting. Currently congress is actually investigating making our five cent piece commonly known as the nickel because it's of the material it was made out of, out of steel instead of nickel. Because currently it costs seven point five cents, seven and a half cents to produce one nickel. So it's a loser right from the start from when it's minted. Again I'm Rui you can find a number of this, these different alloys and elements in coins and reference books similar to this one, and this antiques and collectibles guide. There's a number of different coin collecting books that you can, if you find coins that don't look like they're the typical made out of the typical material that you're used to, you can look it up, see, check the year, the style of the coin, see what that coin is made out of and see if you did find something great. Again I'm Rui good luck collecting."