Different coinage metals in antiquity

[acgoldis]

Everyone used interesting metals like gold, silver, and copper in antiquity. Why not other metals? Gold isn't very common.

Is it because the Au column of the periodic table is malleable or something and easy to shape into coins? Silver works but is tricky as a lot of other elements look like it.

Could you get other elements as coinage metals? Compounds are another interesting idea, but once people know how to produce them through chemical reactions...

Osmium is an interesting idea: distinctive color and density. Problem is that it has a very high melting point. And I think OsO4 is toxic.

 

[Mildtryth]

Not being common is the whole point, but there's a limit to rarity. Osmium is way too rare to work as a currency, it was only discovered as a distinct metal in the 19th century and its biggest deposits are in places antique civilizations didn't have access to.

 

[acgoldis]

What if they discovered bismuth and managed to make those cool rainbow crystals? Did they have the tech?

 

[Evil Crusader]

Coinage metal has to be rare enough to be worth being circulated (and thus be portable), resistant to oxidisation, but common enough to be mined, malleable but not fragile. Gold managed to hit all of these, so did Silver for lower values.

Osmium oxidises, is heavy and too rare/complex, bismuth is too fragile and very complex to make.

 

[acgoldis]

I mean just look at all those elements with ancient symbols at the bottom of the table:

Pt (which I think everyone knew)
Au
Hg (could they do something with this? Presumably you'd need a container of some sort to hold the liquid)
Tl (toxic)
Pb
Bi

Low oxidation rates could explain why they got a whole column (why copper is included)

 

[Arkenfolm]

Everyone used interesting metals like gold, silver, and copper in antiquity. Why not other metals? Gold isn't very common.

Is it because the Au column of the periodic table is malleable or something and easy to shape into coins? Silver works but is tricky as a lot of other elements look like it.

Could you get other elements as coinage metals? Compounds are another interesting idea, but once people know how to produce them through chemical reactions...

Osmium is an interesting idea: distinctive color and density. Problem is that it has a very high melting point. And I think OsO4 is toxic.

Gold was preferred in most places precisely because it wasn't very common. If it isn't very common, then crooks will have difficulties mass counterfeiting it. And a lot of elements do look like silver, but conveniently those elements weren't known or isolated back then so the argument is really only relevant to counterfeiting today (or especially some hypothetical/post-apocalyptic scenario where people start using PM again).

The one exception is that China and East Asia did generally prefer copper coins, but there were plenty of exceptions there (i.e. the Ming Dynasty and their silver coins, or the widespread use and acceptance of silver sycees). They also widely used copper alloys such as brass and bronze, and at times widely issued lead coins. They used iron coins too, but these were usually not preferred since they rusted and there was always a fear they'd be melted down to make weapons.

An interesting coinage material that I'm not aware of ever being used is various antimony-lead alloys. 5% tin, 15% antimony, and 80% lead makes a sturdy alloy. I don't think the antimony percentage can get much higher than 20% of so however. You could also make a primarily tin coin (up to 90%) and the rest could be a mix of lead, antimony, and copper to add hardness but apparently this was very rare and only done in premodern Malaysia at various points and in one single English coin that had the problem with corrosion. I'm not sure just how "tin" the coin could be made.

 

[da Racontor]

Not sure about non-European, pre-Rome, but gold was not actually that common of a currency in circulation.
Ya there were plenty of gold coins, but for the average person, it was kinda like a 100 dollar bill. I know they exist, I know they print a "bunch" of them, I've even held one, but I can count the number of times i've seen them on my fingers & toes.
Silver was the common currency metal. It was rare, but not completely unobtainable for most people. With copper being used for even smaller value coins.

The only metal I can think of off the top of my head that could fit the bill is platinum, but that has it's own problems. It's rarity would make it worth more than gold. It wasn't scientifically discovered until the 1500s, I know it's not easy to obtain, but not sure if it is impossible for earlier civilizations.
I remember a story, that the Spanish found a whole platinum mine in the Andes (I think) & dumped it all in the ocean because they didn't know its value & it wasn't what they were looking for. So just find it doesn't guarantee its use.

The other possibility is alloys being more common. Plenty of copper alloys were used in the early modern period but normally as an debasing method. But there is nothing stopping someone using it for a small value currency. Some people think that orichalcum was an actual alloy.
Also electroplating was something that was done surprisingly early. If the process became more popular maybe it could be used for older coins.

 

[Zireael]

A possible currency metal is alumin(i)um. Until modern methods were discovered around 1920 it was seriously rare and precious - nobles had aluminum cutlery just to show off how rich they were.

 

[acgoldis]

The only metal I can think of off the top of my head that could fit the bill is platinum, but that has it's own problems. It's rarity would make it worth more than gold. It wasn't scientifically discovered until the 1500s, I know it's not easy to obtain, but not sure if it is impossible for earlier civilizations.
I remember a story, that the Spanish found a whole platinum mine in the Andes (I think) & dumped it all in the ocean because they didn't know its value & it wasn't what they were looking for. So just find it doesn't guarantee its use.

Now there's a POD for you. They monetize platinum earlier and when they discover the mine in the Andes they'll go "screw gold: we want platinum!"

 

[acgoldis]

A possible currency metal is alumin(i)um. Until modern methods were discovered around 1920 it was seriously rare and precious - nobles had aluminum cutlery just to show off how rich they were.

I was thinking about that myself but I figured someone would figure out a way to get it if it were very valuable

 

[acgoldis]

Hmm: maybe some scientist in the New World manages to isolate aluminum in 1100 or so, aluminum coins spread across the hemisphere in the next 400 years, and when the Spanish get there they go nuts as they have effectively an unlimited supply of wealth which the Old World has no way to reverse engineer.

Aluminum is so light it would make for a good coin.

Once the Old World realizes what it's got they can give the Spanish one aluminum coin to bribe them to go away.

"I'm sorry, Cortes, but we don't have a written language for our alchemists. I guess we can't give you anything to take home with you to make your own..."

"Fine, we'll bombard your cities and kill all your people."

"Oops, you just set our lab on fire. So sorry. Can't make you any more."

 

[The Tai-Pan]

Looking at Wikipedia, there were a few others used. They mention bronze was used and, interestingly, electrum. Apparently iron coins have been used rarely in China. A few zinc coins.

 

[anotherlurker]

Not being common is the whole point, but there's a limit to rarity. Osmium is way too rare to work as a currency, it was only discovered as a distinct metal in the 19th century and its biggest deposits are in places antique civilizations didn't have access to.

The point is actually having millions of them in circulation so that the state doesn't have to bother as much with payments in kind, not the rarity. All metals are rare if you really think about it. The common person on the street from the lydian invetion of coins to the abolition of the gold standard has never seen or used a gold coin in his life. The money for normal usage ways always made out of copper, bronze or brass and where abundantly available silver for higher denominations. Gold coins were only ever relevant for merchants and the state to be able to handle vast sums of money. For example 1 gold Aureus in Rome had the same face value as 100 Sestertii, but it weighted only 7.7 grams while the same money in Sestertii would have been ~2.7 kilograms of brass.

 

[Arkenfolm]

The only metal I can think of off the top of my head that could fit the bill is platinum, but that has it's own problems. It's rarity would make it worth more than gold. It wasn't scientifically discovered until the 1500s, I know it's not easy to obtain, but not sure if it is impossible for earlier civilizations.
I remember a story, that the Spanish found a whole platinum mine in the Andes (I think) & dumped it all in the ocean because they didn't know its value & it wasn't what they were looking for. So just find it doesn't guarantee its use.

The problem with platinum is the cultures who most extensively valued and used it i.e. certain Andean natives of modern Colombia and Ecuador did not really use coinage as Old World societies did. Had Spain overcame their aversion to platinum, maybe they could have dumped it into some low-value coin.

 

[jacob ningen]

One weird case from Plutarch wrt to Sparta(but Parallel Lives is so long after the mythical king he's describing and in fact if Lycurgus did exist he predates the Lydian currency so the story is unlikely) is Lycurgus making Spartan currecy giant iron triangles to discourage trade and wealth. I think(someone more knowledgeable of Han China please correct me) that Wang Mang did a similar thing.

 

[Arkenfolm]

One weird case from Plutarch wrt to Sparta(but Parallel Lives is so long after the mythical king he's describing and in fact if Lycurgus did exist he predates the Lydian currency so the story is unlikely) is Lycurgus making Spartan currecy giant iron triangles to discourage trade and wealth. I think(someone more knowledgeable of Han China please correct me) that Wang Mang did a similar thing.

Wang Mang followed in the Zhou Dynasty tradition of knife money and spade money, which in China were essentially a "transitional form" between barter and coinage. The problem with Wang Mang's idea was that he basically tried to make it a sort of a fiat currency and worse, as part of an overtly complex system of currency compared to the system that was in use previously AND during a time his economic reforms caused a lot of economic upheaval. So it's not a surprise he failed, and wasn't a measure to enforce a cultural attitude toward wealth like Lycurgus allegedly did.

 

[jacob ningen]

Wang Mang followed in the Zhou Dynasty tradition of knife money and spade money, which in China were essentially a "transitional form" between barter and coinage. The problem with Wang Mang's idea was that he basically tried to make it a sort of a fiat currency and worse, as part of an overtly complex system of currency compared to the system that was in use previously AND during a time his economic reforms caused a lot of economic upheaval. So it's not a surprise he failed, and wasn't a measure to enforce a cultural attitude toward wealth like Lycurgus allegedly did.

i mean isnt all currency besides barter fiat currency just disguised?

 

[Godot]

I mean you could see other rare.... materials, things being used, most prominently cowrie shells in a number of cultures.

 

[Godot]

i mean isnt all currency besides barter fiat currency just disguised?

Not.... quite. Currency is a particular store of value partially because of the cultural value it carries via societal consensus. It is certainly a *good*, it's important not to fall into the pre-Keynesian (if memory serves) notion that money is *only* a store of value and is not a good with supply and demand. But it transcends barter in it's universality.

 

[Legofan4]

Hmm: maybe some scientist in the New World manages to isolate aluminum in 1100 or so, aluminum coins spread across the hemisphere in the next 400 years, and when the Spanish get there they go nuts as they have effectively an unlimited supply of wealth which the Old World has no way to reverse engineer.

Aluminum is so light it would make for a good coin.

Once the Old World realizes what it's got they can give the Spanish one aluminum coin to bribe them to go away.

"I'm sorry, Cortes, but we don't have a written language for our alchemists. I guess we can't give you anything to take home with you to make your own..."

"Fine, we'll bombard your cities and kill all your people."

"Oops, you just set our lab on fire. So sorry. Can't make you any more."

A possible currency metal is alumin(i)um. Until modern methods were discovered around 1920 it was seriously rare and precious - nobles had aluminum cutlery just to show off how rich they were.

The reason that aluminum was rare in the past is that you needed very specific chemical reactions to separate it from various oxides in the crust. And even when they actually repeated the experiment that isolated aluminum they were unable to repeat the results everytime. Aluminum is very common on earth but until the invention of the Halt-Heroult and Bayer processes it was so expensive to extract that it really couldn't be used for anything except decoration. The Halt-Heroult process requires extensive creation and use of electricity so is unavailable until the industrial revolution. There is a reason that despite being more plentiful than Iron in the crust aluminum was not used in any scale until the last 150 years.