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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
OK, this is something I have been wondering about for the last few weeks, but as yet, have been unable to find any sort of reference (let alone for my target era, 1930-1950 minting technology).
I want to know about the difference in minting process or tooling that would (probably) have to occur when minting coinage out of a variety of elements/alloys. We all know that different metals have differing properties and logic would suggest that this extends to coins as well; minting in Zinc would logically require modification to the procedures required to mint in Nickel.
So, who knows about this stuff? I'm particularly interested in the following elements/alloys from a 1930-1950's perspective:
Silver/Copper
Brass
Pure Nickel
Pure Zinc
Pure Aluminium
My thoughts: I am guessing you may need to manufacture and treat the dies differently (possibly different materials?), or some manner of plachet preparation or something?
Why do I ask? Well as some of you will know, I'm researching German coins, 1933-1948. In 1936, all coin designs changed with the EXCEPTION of those designs minted in pure nickel. I am wondering if the fact that the coins were nickel (and the new designs would have had to have remained in nickel, to allow Germany to continue to stockpile pure nickel 'in ppls pockets') would require a different minting or die manufacture process, which could account for the 2 year delay in 'modernising' ONE of the designs (and 3 years for the other design, which was never released into circulation)?
Any thoughts and explanations on typical 1930-1950 minting processes would be welcome. If it helps, a lot of minting processes and trends of Germany in this period (particularly early 1930's), seem to be very closely aligned to the United States (its hard to pin down definitives obviously, but it seems there was at very least one-way, or more probably two-way exchange of information and technologies between Germany and the US. Therefore, while not definitive for my purpose, information on US procedures and processes could represent a good starting point if ppl aren't particularly well versed in German methods.
Thanks in Advance Guys... :)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Wow...interesting question, and I'll look forward to seeing if anyone knows about all that. I'll throw in a few inexpert thoughts.
While I know nothing about Reich coins, I have read that when a harder metal is substituted (such as steel for nickel), they often switch to lower-relief dies. Also, the aluminum coins I've seen are always low relief, which leads me to believe that Al alloys are difficult to make an impression. I'm guessing that the more ductile the planchet, the easier to strike the coin. How would the alloys you listed rate in ductility? Of course, it really depends on the actual percentages, trace hardening metals and planchet annealing. Another matter to consider is how much work they put the die through. For instance, if they changed to a non-strategic metal during wartime, and ramp up production 4X because they melted most of the pure nickel coins in circulation, those dies will need to be a lot tougher than under normal production conditions.
--just a few random thoughts.
Edited by KurtS
12/20/2007 1:23 pm
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Posted 12/20/2007 09:44 am
