Did You Know?
. . . that nickel coins have been used for centuries? It's a Natural Nickel Fact
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Nickel Magazine, November, 2005 -- Long before nickel was identified as an element (in 1751 by the Swedish scientist Axel Cronstedt), nickel was part of coinage: the ancient Chinese alloy 'paitung' was an coinage material of nickel, copper and zinc.
For modern coinage, many alloys were made and tested in the search for the best substitute for
silver.
Various alloys were tried. The Swiss started in 1850 with several denominations in nickel silver. The United
States started minting an 88% copper and 12% nickel one-cent coin in 1856.
A 75% copper and 25% nickel alloy was first used in the U.S. in 1865, Germany in 1873 and Switzerland in
1879. That alloy, cupro-nickel, is today the single most common alloy of nickel for coinage in the world.
In 1881, Switzerland introduced pure nickel coins after certain metallurgical problems in the processing
of pure nickel into coins were overcome.
The wear resistance of these pure nickel coins was so great that coins from the 1880s still in circulation in
the 1960s were almost indistinguishable from new counterparts minted at that time.
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Following, is a list of links to web pages, managed by the Nickel Institute, that provide in-depth
information on the role of nickel in coinage: See also an entry on nickel coins on Wikpedia.
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