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by looking at the colors and saperating them

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15y ago

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Continue Learning about Math & Arithmetic

How long has silver been used for coins?

Silver has been used in coinage ever since coinage was made. The earliest coins were made out of an alloy of silver and gold. Silver, along with gold, have been used for coins ever since coinage was made in 700 BC or so.


What was used to make roman coins?

The Romans used bronze, silver and gold to make their coins.


Who invented coins?

According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coin.


What is clad proof?

I saw someone had asked if they should buy the $50 gold proof coins advertised on TV. No, never. Listen closely to the ad. The precious metal (gold or silver) is a very small amount layered on top of some very cheap metal. Current ads mention 31 mg of gold or silver, which is typically measured in troy ounces. The problem with these coins is there is such a small amount of gold or silver they are worthless as an investment and with so much cheap metal inside, melt value would be nothing because of how expensive it would be to separate the tiny amount of gold or silver from all the cheap metal in the coin. When they say a $50 dollar coin they are talking about the face value on the coin, which could be any face value they want on the coin. It is no indication of the actual value of the coin. These coins are nothing more than an expensive nice looking paper weight. Do research before buying any silver or gold. This is a good example of knowledge is power.


What do you call the ridges on the sides of coins?

According to the United States mint, ridged or "reeded" edges serve two purposes. Originally, reeded edges made coins harder to counterfeit, they also prevented people from filing down or "clipping" the coins. In 1793, the first U.S. coins were linked to a silver standard. A half dollar contained half as much silver as a silver dollar, a quarter contained one-fourth, and so on. The ridged edges prevented people from shaving the coins' edges for extra silver. Over a short time they would have a pile of silver or gold shavings and the coins returned to circulation would be light, but still, usually accepted at face value. While coins these days aren't made of precious metals, the government decided to keep the reeded edges on certain coins to help the visually impaired. The dime and the penny, for example, are roughly the same size, so the ridges help people distinguish them. Bonus fact: The movie cliche of biting a gold coin is not to verify that it is real gold. Gold coins are tooth-breakingly hard. The practice was to check for another nasty gold-thieving technique of hollowing out coins. If a coin collapsed when bit, you knew it had been emptied of its core metal.