The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-12-18
i PENNIES OF ALUMINIUM.
Tho Mint Making Tests to Sec II They
- %sEGzS,E.sz Are Practicable.

Inc Miht making Tests tn Sec II They
Il Are Practicable.
In the short period that will elapse be-
fore Congress convenes again in Deem
IN coinage will he conducted at the mint
in this city. Metals and alloys hereto
fore untred for the purpose will be test
ed and stamped into token coins. Their
availability as substitutes for the alloys
of which the minor coins-rickels and
and samples submitted to Congress.
OF all the countless possible alloys to
be obtained from copper, tin, nickel and
aluminium in different combinations, per-
haps fifteen or twenty may be found
fairly satisfactory 1t is possible that
one, or two of these may advantageously
be brought into use for general coinage.
No fault has been found with the pres
ent 1-cent and 5-cent pieces. The ex-
periments are merely ordered to keep in
touch with the times and to gain
knowledge of resources. THE Philadel-
phia mint, while having no regular ex-
detrimental department, is we'll equipped
to make the tests
Aluminium, which has never YET found
place in the currency of any nation,
is to be worked up into trial coins. 1t
is also to be given chance i'll new al
Toys. Aluminium is metal of which
but little has been known until recently,
and it has been found useful in so many
ways that a sort OF popular idea prevails
among it's advantages would be it's very
light weight. Gents made of it could
readily be distinguished from coins of the
same size by this remarkable lightness
alone.
DR.. D. X. futile, the chief refncr at
the mint, who knows all about the prop
critics of metal, is somewhat skeptical,
tn Olv will
come out of the proposed tests with fly
ing colors. 1t is extremely difficult to
anneal, and when heated will suddenly
run like butter instead of becoming plas-
tic. There would be trouble in rolling
it into the long strips from which disks
are cut preparatory to stamping. OF
course, it can be worked, but not with
practicable for coming OH large scale.
Pure nickel has recently been coined in
Switzerland, but it has been found just
us difficult to handle as aluminium,
though for different reason. Such
great heat is necessary to bring it into
condition for coming that the operat ton
is slow and expensive. While pure nickel
mints 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 5-cent
pieces as the minis of that country, and
could not spare the time to work over
them.
The 5-cent coin now in use contains
only rs per cent. of nickel. the remain
ing IS per cent being of copper. Nickel,
more than any other metal, has the
property of giving it's color to all alloy.
Even an alloy of 80 per cent of copper
and 10 per cent of nickel will be nearly
white. The advantage of using greater
proportion of nickel in the 5-cent pieces is
therefore not apparent, especially as
more than rs per cent. of it 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, s;!sic, produce the
bronze; aluminium and copper, which
make aluminium bronze. German sill
yer has been used for coins by one of
the small South American states, and
proved fairly adapted for the purpose
Bronze is commonly used for coins of
small value. 1t is doubtful if aluminium
bronze in any form will be found ac-
ceptable, as it is hard to work, and has
a yellow, brassy appearance, resembling
gold, which is to be avoided in all coins
Of small denomination. Philadelphia
Record