What are coinage metals.

Coinage metals are part of group of three malleable ductile transition metals forming group 11 of the periodic table copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au) which are used for making coins. Their outer electronic configurations have the form nd 10(n+1)s 1. Although this is similar to that of alkali metals, the coinage metals all have much higher ionization energies and higher standard electrode potentials. Thus, they are much more difficult to oxidize and are more resistant to corrosion making them ideal for making coins.

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The coinage metals comprise, at minimum, those metallic chemical elements which have historically been used as components in alloys used to mint coins. The term is not perfectly defined, however, since a number of metals have been used to make "demonstration coins" which have never been used to make monetized coins for any nation-state, but could be. Some of these elements would make excellent coins in theory (for example, zirconium), but their status as coin metals is not clear. In general, because of problems caused when coin metals are intrinsically valuable as commodities, there has been a trend in the 21st century toward use of coinage metals of only the least exotic and expensive types

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