jack w
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The original concept since Roman times was for the value of the coin to be the metal content, usually silver and gold. Plus silver and gold are relatively soft and easy to mint into coins. Coins have been made of other metals, including steel for the 1943 US penny. For many years, the US nickel was made of nickel metal. Gold proved to be soft and circulation wear wore the metal away. Pennies were made of copper.
Today's US coins are not made of silver or gold but a combination of metals that provide excellent wear properties. The value of the coins are set by the US Treasury and not by their metal content.
You'll find that in different societies, different items can be used as currency, and not coins. Any number of things have been used as currency in different places in the world, especially in the past, including olive oil, wine, fish hooks, shells, etc.
One of the difficulties of using shells or gem stones is the difficulty in keeping the value among different societies. A sea shell might be considered very rare hundreds of miles from the ocean but very common at the seaside. Even diamonds have numerous grades for quality and you need to be an expert to know the difference, a knowledge not commonly available to the average person. So coins of a known metal value were a big plus to commerce between societies. |
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Anthony D
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Durability! Also precious medals such as silver and gold were used in the past because they have value unlike copper and nickle that's used these days. It actually cost more than a penny to make a penny! |
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technicolourlassie
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harder to break |
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comunga4
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Just the exterior is made of metal but it is so they last, why do you think that europe has coins for the low value like 1 and 5. they last longer than bills. |
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Alek B
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It makes them durable; if the value of the coins were based strictly off of their materials, the value of a quarter, for example, would fluctuate. Metals are just more durable; I'd hate to see how long a plastic dime would last... |
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bluefacedelf
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Not ivory because of the rarity of those. But out of metal mostly because it is harder to mint a coin from these which prevents forgery and metal endures longer. |
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anjlbeing
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Because metals are worth money. What value would we have in plastic? |
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GibsonEssGee
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It helps the trouser/pants/shorts industries because coins wear out the pockets. |
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Thor Doomhammer
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I would imagine metal gives a compromise between cost of production, durability, and difficulty of producing forgeries. |
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m3xhipy
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because if they were made out of plastic or any other material then anyone could copy them and create their own money, which would lead to inflation. Also Metals are worth more than any other material. |
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Daniel,Danny for short :)
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why are bills made out of green paper?because its simple and it has more in value.five $1 bills are worth only $1(one sheet of paper is worth not even a dollar so less then a dollar,maybe 10 cents.)coins are worth about the same.and coins are shiny. in my opinion anyway. |
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John K
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So they appear to have value and are more expensive to create than hey are worth, helps with counterfieting |
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Valerie K
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THey actually used to be made out of real silver and copper. But that got to expensive so they had to switch to metal beacuse theres more of it and its cheaper. Not to mention that their a lot lighter, smaller and easier to carry |
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paimimor
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coins are not made out of metal |
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