Bi-metallic coins are

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

consisting of two (''

bi- Numeral or number prefixes are prefixes derived from numerals or occasionally other numbers. In English and many other languages, they are used to coin numerous series of words. For example: * unicycle, bicycle, tricycle (1-cycle, 2-cycle, 3-cyc ...

'')

metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

alloys An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

, generally arranged with an outer ring around a contrasting center. Common circulating examples include the €1, €2, United Kingdom £1 and £2,

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

$2, South Africa R5, Turkish 1 lira and 50 kurus, Indian ₹10 and ₹20, IDR 1K, 2 and 5 PLN, 50 CZK, 100 and 200 HUF, 1 and 2 BGN, Hong Kong $10,

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

$1 and $2, Brazilian R$1,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an $100 and $500, Colombian $500 and $1000, and all Mexican coins of $1 or higher denomination.

History

Bi-metallic coins and medals have been issued for a long time. The

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

issued special-occasion, large medallions with a center of bronze or copper and an outer ring of

orichalcum Orichalcum or aurichalcum is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the ''Critias'' of Plato. Within the dialogue, Critias (460–403 BC) claims that orichalcum had been considered second only to go ...

, starting with the reign of Hadrian. Meanwhile, circulating bi-metallic coins are known from the 17th century. English farthings from 1684 through 1693 were made of tin with a central plug of copper for value. The silver-center cent

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...

produced by the United States in 1792 is another example. In the 1830s and 1840s, British medalist Joseph Moore produced large numbers of bi-metallic "penny model" and less common "halfpenny model" tokens, as a proposal to replace the relatively large penny and halfpenny coins. Though not legal tender, Moore's tokens were circulated widely and accepted at face value by many merchants. Despite their popularity, the Royal Mint rejected the proposal, and did not reduce the size of the penny and halfpenny until decimalization. The first modern circulating bi-metallic coin was the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

500 lire, first issued in 1982. Based on the minting process of the lire coin, the following issued bi-metallic coins for circulation were issued: * Morocco, with its 5- dirhams coin in 1987; * France, with a 10- francs coin in 1988; * Monaco, with a 10 francs; * Thailand, with a 10

baht The baht (; th, บาท, ; currency sign, sign: ฿; ISO 4217, code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. Society for Worldw ...

, in 1988; * Hong Kong, with a $10 coin, in 1993; * Canada, with a $2 coin (nicknamed " toonie") in 1996; * Hungary, with a 100-

forint The forint (sign Ft; code HUF) is the currency of Hungary. It was formerly divided into 100 fillér, but fillér coins are no longer in circulation. The introduction of the forint on 1 August 1946 was a crucial step in the post- World War II stab ...

coin in 1996 and a 200 forint coin in 2009; * Brazil with the 1

real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

coin, in 1998; * The United Kingdom has issued a bi-metallic £2 coin since 1997, and a bi-metallic £1 coin since March 2017; * The Philippines has minted a bi-metallic 10-peso coin from 2000 to 2017 and a 20-peso coin since 2019. * The Eurozone circulated the €1 and €2 coins on 1 January 2002; * India has issued a bi-metallic ₹10 coin since 2009 and a bi-metallic ₹20 coin since 2019; * Singapore has issued a bi-metallic 1- dollar coin since 2013. * Japan has issued a bi-metallic

500 yen coin The is the largest denomination of Japanese yen coin issued for circulation. These coins were first struck in 1982 as the vending machine industry needed a higher valued coin for use in their machines. The denomination had previously been iss ...

since 2021. * Costa Rica announced a bi-metallic 500-colones coin that will start to circulate in November 2021. The first ever tri-metallic circulating coins were 20-francs coins introduced in France and Monaco in 1992. These were similar to the corresponding bi-metallic 10-francs coins, but had two rings instead of one.

Use

As well as circulating coins, where they are generally restricted to high-denomination coins, bi-metallic coins are often used in commemorative issues, often made of

precious metals Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lus ...

. For example, the only bi-metallic coin issued by the United States is the $10 Library of Congress commemorative, made of a gold ring around a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platin ...

center. They are used primarily as a way of securing against

coin counterfeiting Coin counterfeiting of valuable antique coins is common; modern high-value coins are also counterfeited and circulated. The manufacturing process is similar to that of ordinary coins, except that two blanks (the inner and the outer) are struck at the same time, deforming the separate blanks sufficiently to hold them together.

Countries

Examples

File:Kingtutcoinobv without background.png, 2008 "

King Tutankhamun Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...

" bi-metallic £E1 coin. File:1-real-2019-25-anos-reverso.png, Brazilian R$1 coin, a stainless steel center in a

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

plated steel ring. File:Indian 10 rupee coin (2019).jpg, ₹10 bi-metallic coins from India. File:20franctrimetalrev.jpg, 1992 French 20 francs tri-metallic coin.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bi-Metallic Coins * Numismatics Bimetal