What Type Of Coin Composition Do You Prefer

I moved this out to the Main forum where everyone can see it.

I choose silver.

I have no preference--just a coin collector out having fun.

No preference here either. A beautiful coin is a beautiful coin.

I think a coin's design is a much more significant component of a coin's attractiveness, rather than the composition. After all, in terms of appearance, you really don't have many options:
- Grey (most metals)
- orange-brown (copper and bronzes)
- yellow (gold and brasses)
...and that's about it. You can mix-and-match things up with bimetallic coins, and you can paint or anodize a coin for a splash of colour, but that's it.

Iron, silver, aluminium, cupronickel, pure nickel and such are all really just subtle variations of grey. That's because all but two metallic elements are grey in colour, the two exceptions being copper and gold - so only those two metals or metals alloyed with them can be anything else.

Gold is only "prettier" than all the other metals for two reasons: it's one of the few that actually are a different colour, and the collective psychology of humans for the past 10,000 years or so that says "gold is pretty". But from a purely technical point of view, there's not really all that much difference in appearance between gold and brass. The difference is almost entirely psychological: you know the gold coin is made of gold, therefore it looks more attractive to you.

I voted "gold" in your poll, not necessarily because I prefer the appearance of gold to other metals, but because of that historic attitude that gold is the most valuable metal therefore a country's "best coins" are made of gold. So the gold coins tend to be most attractive, not because of the metal they're made from but because of the time and skill usually put in to the artwork for making them.

I also like a well conserved silver coin better than gold. But gold keeps better than silver. And it is as sap says, gold coins have better artwork. Apart from the Arethusa coins.

Is Florentine bronze the patinated dark brown bronze? Those are very nice.

My favorite metals are copper and bronze, as well as all sorts of alloys with these two metals. But I voted for 0.900 silver because of its easy availability compared to gold and value.