The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-19
PENNIES OF ALUMINIUM.
The Mint Making Tests to See if They
 Are Practicable.


 The Mint Making Tests to See if They Are Practicable.
 In the short period that will elapse before Congress convenes again in December, series of interesting exper- iments in coinage will be conducted at the mint in this city. Metals and alloys heretofore untried for the purpose will be tested and stamped into token coins. Their availability as substitutes for the alloys of which the minor coins nickels and cents-are now made will be ascertained and samples submitted to Congress.
 Of all the countless possible aloys to be obtained from copper, tin, nickel and aluminium in different combina- tions perhaps fifteen or twenty may be found fairly satisfactory It is possible that one or two of these may adyan- tageously be brought into use for gen. eral coinage. No fault has been found with the present 1-cent and 5-cent ordered to keep in touch with the times and to gain a Knowledge of resources. The Philadelphia mint while having no regular experimental department, is
  Aluminium, which has never yet found a place in the currency of any nation, is to be worked up into trial coins. It is also to be given a chance in new alloys. Aluminium is a metal of which but little has been known until recent ly, and 1t has been found useful in so many ways that a sort of popular idea prevails that 1t would be good for coins. Chief among it's advantages would be its very light weight. Gents made of it | could readily be distinguished from coins of the same size by this remark able lightness alone.
 | Dr, D. K. Futile, the chief refiner at the mint, who knows all about the properties of metals, is somewhat skep- | tical, however, as to whether aluminium will come out of the proposed tests with I flying colors. It is extremely difficult to anneal, and when heated will suddenly l run like butter instead of becoming plastic. There would be trouble in roll | ing it into long strips from which disks are cut preparatory to stamping. Of l course 1t can be worked, but not with sfficient ease for coining on a large scale.
 Pure nickel has recently been coined in Switzerland, but it has been found just as difficult to handle as aluminium,
 though for different reason. Such great heat is necessary to bring 1t into condition for coining that the operation l is slow and expensive While pure nick
 el coins might be satisfactorily made | in the hints of Switzerland it does not
 follow that the same would be true at the Philadelphia mint, which is called
 upon to turn out fifty times as many five-cent pieces as the hints of that
 country, and could not spare the time
 to work over them.
 The five-cent coin now in use contains
 only 25 per cent of nickel, the remain
 ing 75 per cent. being of copper. Nickel,
 more than any other metal, has the property of giving it's color to an alloy
 Even an alloy of 90 per cent. of copper
 and 10 per cent of nickel will be nearly
 white. The advantage of using a great
 CT proportion of nickel in the five-cent piece is therefore not apparent, espec-
 lally as more than 25 per cent. of ii
 makes the alloy refractory,
 The experiments at the mint will in
 clude different combinations of nickel
 copper and zinc, forming the alloys
 known under the head of German silver
 copper and tin, which produce bronze;
 aluminium and copper, which make
 aluminium bronze. German silver has
 been used for coins by one of the small
 South American States, and fairly
 adapted for the purpose. Bronze is com
 monty used for coins of small value
 It is doubtful if aluminium bronze 1T