Electrum

Was Electrum natures’ way of putting two of man’s most precious metals used for coinage at his finger tips for commerce? This naturally occurring alloy paved the way for ancient man to possess a small, portable, and valuable currency in his hands for exchange. In his travels and trade in distance lands as well in local commerce this metal, mentioned a few times in the Old Testament Bible, helped man escape the rules and follies of barter.

The Byzantine empire minted a number of electrum coins as shown on the right. These were from the twelfth century. There were many empires even before that who hammered out electrum coins going as far back as the Lydians around 600 BC with the Lydian Trite. Trites most likely came before the Lycian and Greek Staters. These coins had a very similar appearance. Small globs of electrum, gold, or silver metal with images crudely stamped into them. Some of the older versions didn't have any stampings.

In 1914 a 2 pesos coin was minted in Mexico with a mixture of gold and silver. It was during a brief civil war in Mexico that these coins were minted by a revolutionary named Emiliano Zapata in a southern state of Mexico called Guerrero. This mixture was not a natural occurrence by nature, but a purposeful alloy mix to keep the coin a manageable size for commerce. It is about the size of a dollar coin. There were also one pesos minted in silver. All of the coins minted were struck only once with very poor dies.

Mexico continued to mint a number of coins as a republic after its civil war with a mixture of gold and silver. These coins indicate the amount of gold that is mixed with the silver on the face of the coin. Naturally, the more the gold, the greater the value. Again, this kept the silver-looking coin at a reasonable size yet increased its value in the marketplace.

The term "goldoid" has been used to represent a gold and silver mixture. Sometimes this is not a mix of gold and silver but a separate plug or a fusing of two distinct different metals. The addition of the added gold metal is intended to increase the value of the coin but keeping it at its traditional size.

The amount of gold content in this coin was insignificant (approximately 0.595 grains of gold) enough not to change the predominate appearance of silver in the coin. Although, an uncirculated version has a slight yellowish glow to it. Remember, all of these coins were crudely minted and this should be taken in account if one is acquired.