"Eutopia" dollar medal - Interesting reading 0

[RWB]

This is a link to a PCGS thread about one of the goofy attempts to have a standard bi-metallic "coin." (See my book Fads, Fakes & Foibles for a bunch of others.) I thought it would be of interest to a wider audience than found on the other site.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1041746/a-look-at-the-eutopia-dollar

(The Bickford pattern coin is covered in the book, and dispels most of what was once believed about the pieces.)

Edited February 23, 2023 by RWB

[roadbike]

Bi-metallic coins have never appealed to me--they seem to be aluminum and/or other light or non-precious alloys. Witness the "cent value" Euro coins since 2002. Didn't know they were ever made with precious medals, although the (1793?) large cent with the silver dot comes close. It was neat to see that there were designs with precious metals.

[RWB]

I really should have written "composite coin." Bi-metallic implies an alloy of two metals as in the phony "Goloid" nonsense. Composite means a coin made of two or more distinct parts, each of a different material. Modern manufacturers, however, usually call their products "bi-metallic."

[roadbike]

Roger, dumb question. How do the parts of the coin stick together? Sorry if you wrote about this and I haven't read it yet, or even worse, haven't remembered it. If so, perhaps direct me to the page numbers.

With gold and silver, I might envision an alloy where the gold and silver meet under the high pressure?

How does it work with base metals?

[RWB]

On 3/28/2023 at 4:19 PM, roadbike said:

Roger, dumb question. How do the parts of the coin stick together? Sorry if you wrote about this and I haven't read it yet, or even worse, haven't remembered it. If so, perhaps direct me to the page numbers.

With gold and silver, I might envision an alloy where the gold and silver meet under the high pressure?

How does it work with base metals?

The engineering is in making the blanks. In high quality work, the two parts are cut with slightly angled mating edges... kind of like this on the inner edge of the outside (ring) piece: < and this on the edge of the inside (core) piece: > . The two are pressed together to form a planchet and then struck on a normal press. For routine work, the ring and core are cut with normal edges, then pressed together and struck. In both situations, there is sufficient metal flow to lock the two parts together. The second method being less secure, results in the core occasionally falling out.

The latter method was used for 19th century composite tokens such as the Eutopia and Bickford pieces, and for the 18th century US silver center Birch cent (although here the copper hole was drilled, not die cut). There is a short discussion on pages 87-88 in my book Fads, Fakes and Foibles under the term "bimetallic."

Edited March 29, 2023 by RWB

[magdalenahom28]

On 2/24/2023 at 12:28 AM, RWB said:

This is a link to a PCGS thread about one of the goofy attempts to have a standard bi-metallic "coin." (See my book Fads, Fakes & Foibles for a bunch of others.) I thought it would be of interest to a wider audience than found on the other site.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1041746/a-look-at-the-eutopia-dollar

(The Bickford pattern coin is covered in the book, and dispels most of what was once believed about the pieces.)

This really sounds interesting! Creating a standard bimetallic coin is no easy task, and the history surrounding attempts of this kind can be surprising and exciting. The book Fads, Fakes and Weaknesses is sure to be full of amazing stories about this and many other amazing coin projects. I just found economics help for the university, I use https://edubirdie.com/economics-help for this. I will have time to read the entire book. Thanks for the tip, now I'll have something to do this weekend.

Edited February 26 by magdalenahom28