World's First Copper Nickel Coins?

The first cupronickel coins were struck in ancient times, and were (initially at least) quite by accident.

In Bactria, an ancient kingdom founded by descendants of Alexander the Great's generals in what is now Afghanistan Pakistan and India, there are copper mines where the ore is naturally high in nickel. When this copper was smelted, the resulting metal looked silvery, rather than coppery. This gave the Bactrians an idea: let's make "silver" coins out of this stuff, and everyone will think they're real silver. I don't think people were fooled for long. There's an example on the Wikipedia page.

Some of the brass or "orichalcum" coins of the Roman period also are high in nickel, though their colour is always brassy-yellow rather than coppery-silver.

There has long been speculation that the Bactrians may have obtained knowledge of cupronickel-making from trade links with China, where "white copper" artefacts are known to date back to about 1500 BC. But I'm not aware of any attempts to make ancient or mediaeval Chinese "white copper" coins. In any event, the secret to making cupronickel coins died out with the Bactrians, and the alloy didn't re-emerge as coinage material until a century after the formal discovery of nickel in 1751 - an event commemorated at its bicentenary by the Canadians with their 1951 commemorative 5 cent coin.

The answer to the question, "Which country in the modern era invented cupronickel coins first?" depends on exactly how we're going to define "cupronickel".

The United States was the first nation to adopt a copper-nickel alloy, with the small 1 cent in 1856, the 3 cent in 1865 and the 5 cent in 1866. Other early adoptees were Belgium (5 and 10 centimes 1861), the German Empire (1873), Switzerland (1879) and Egypt (1884). Switzerland struck nickel-silver alloy 5 and 10 rappen coins as early as 1850, but these "argentonickel" coins are more properly a form of billon rather than cupronickel.

However, the 88:12 copper:nickel ratio used by the USA small cents is not the same as the 75:25 ratio alloy which became the worldwide standard for cupronickel coins. That honour goes to Belgium.

What prompted me to the question is the fact that my world coin collection is comparatively strong in the 19Th century and that is deliberate, because gold was in common circulation in this period.

However, I collect circulating coins of all metals and alloys, and copper nickel coins are comparatively few in the 19Th century, and that attracts my interest.

Interestingly, I had never seen a picture of a copper nickel Bactrian coin until Sap directed me to it. One wonders how much trouble the ancient Bactrians had in striking coins in this relatively hard alloy.

As an aside, I was involved in desigining fire hydrant system for fire fighting on ships tied up alongside a wharf. Resisatance to salt warer corrosion was specified. This requirement brought me into investigation and use of copper nickel alloys for the fire pump impellors fire pump casings and the piping system.

The alloy has to be resistant to corrosion in a salt water environment and to discourage organic marine growth. The resultant alloys of copper and nickel reccomended were somewhat different to those used for coins. Even so, it was the only time I designed a pipe system using these metals.

That fire protection system is still in use at a Naval Base somewhere in Australia, and is now over 25 years old.