Finding Common Ground with Nickel
Throughout the course of history, three metal elements have been used for coins so often that they have acquired the title, “the coinage metals.” Perhaps obviously, this trio is copper, silver and gold. Yes, bronze also has an ancient history, but that is still mostly copper, alloyed with a fourth metal known from antiquity, tin.
Kupfernickel
Several centuries ago, miners in Germany and Sweden encountered a reddish ore that they felt should have yielded copper. Unfortunately, it didn’t, obviously because some devil, pixie or evil spirit was keeping the copper from coming out of the ore. The miners named such ores , “Old Nick” being
