Electrum Pieces!!!

[el-remmen]

I still use them.

 

[Umbran]

I am actually more annoyed with Platinum coins. Minting platinum is a bear. (The stuff is harder than steel, which means that you can't use a steel press...)

Poking around a bit...

Mild steel seems to have a Vickers scale hardness of about 140. Hardened steel on that scale runs around 900. Various platinum alloys run from something like 130 to 350.

So, these days surely you can use a hardened steel press. If in game the folks only have mild steel, they might have issues. Or, you could just cast the coins, getting around the whole press problem. You don't generally want to cast small-value coins, but for high value ones, it might make sense.

 

[Whisper72]

Well... I admit I am by no means an expert, but I always understood that platinum is mainly difficult to gather because of the way it is found in its natural state. I understand that it is rarely found in great quantities or in great veins or pure form etc. This would mean that minting (relatively) large quantities of coin is not feasible.

As I understand, electrum, since it exists like that in a natural state and in enough quantity, _is_ a feasible material...

 

[Zander]

Electrum isn't used much anymore but white gold is, some of which has the same gold/silver composition as electrum. The colour and properties of white gold depend on the ratio of gold to silver (and other metals in the alloy). It can look like silver, pale yellow gold, or something in between.

 

[sjmiller]

I am actually more annoyed with Platinum coins. Minting platinum is a bear. (The stuff is harder than steel, which means that you can't use a steel press...)

The real problem with platinum is processing it. The temperatures needed to process the ore to release the platinum are very hard to reach and maintain. We did not have proper platinum processing facilities until the late 1700s, and then only in small quantities. This is why platinum was, and still is, a very expensive precious metal. It is also why it is rarely used in jewelry (more these days, but not in the past) and why it was never used for coins.

 

[Ambrus]

What I've always wondered was why mithral wasn't minted into coins. It's as rare as gold, more expensive, doesn't tarnish and is shinier than silver; it would seem to meet all the criteria for being considered a noble metal. Minting it and using it in jewelry would seem to be an obvious end result of introducing it into a pseudo-medieval society but it seems to only ever be used in weapons and armor. At its listed value (+500 gp/lb.) a mithral coin would be worth 10 gp, same as a platinum piece. :\

 

[Aeolius]

I use electrum and orichalcum coinage in my games...in addition to rare sea shells, pearls, unusual coral, etc...

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

Poking around a bit...

Mild steel seems to have a Vickers scale hardness of about 140. Hardened steel on that scale runs around 900. Various platinum alloys run from something like 130 to 350.

So, these days surely you can use a hardened steel press. If in game the folks only have mild steel, they might have issues.

In game, you use an adamantine press, that deals with the hardness issue. Or course that raises a whole new issue of making things out of adamantine...

 

[howandwhy99]

We use luckies too. They are less common than say, a common. But still far more valuable. In poorer areas iron, bronze, and even a few brass coins can be found. Bronze and brass are pretty much just cheaper alloyed copper pieces called zees and bits.

 

[diaglo]

I still use them.

ditto.