The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 2, January 14, 2007, Article 17

GERMAN-SILVER FIRST DEVELOPED IN AMERICA IN 1837

Dick Johnson writes: "To answer the question proposed by R.V. Dewey
on Flying Eagle pattern coins in last week?s E-Sylum, 'German-silver'
was found as natural alloys in, obviously, Germany. It was imported
into England in 1830. But it was famed New York City dentist, Dr.
Lewis Feuchtwanger, who, in 1837, after experimenting with alloys,
issued his own tokens in this composition.

"Feuchtwanger, it is well known, went to Scovill in Waterbury to have
his one-cent and three-cent tokens and his storecards struck in this
alloy. He tried to persuade the U.S. Mint to use his "Feuchtwanger's
composition" for a U.S. coin metal but was unsuccessful. There is no
silver in German-silver but its early use was obviously in imitation
of silver.

"Feuchtwanger could have obtained this alloy from Germany, made it
himself by adding nickel to a brass alloy, or ordered it made at
Scovill, I suspect it was the later. One of his proposed alloys was
53 copper, 29 zinc and 18 nickel. (German-silver has a range of
formulae:  55-65 copper, 5-25 nickel, 10-30 zinc.)

"German-silver is a hard alloy. It is ideal for medals to be carried
or worn (but not next to the skin -- it turns skin green). It has
been used for pocket pieces, keytags and watchfobs. The name was
changed to "nickel-silver" in America and England during World War I
for anti-German sentiment. It is still widely used by medalmakers
today for striking items that are likely to be subjected to very
hard use.

"Incidentally, the use of the word "flyers" in this article without
a capital letter is a numismatic buzz word. The word without the
capital should be shunned in formal numismatic writing. It is also
like "walkers" for Liberty Walking halves.

"Buzz words do not lead to clear numismatic writing or easy understanding
by the reader. Even after collecting U.S. coins for 67 years, this 76-year
old collector had to read the sentence containing "flyers" several times
to understand the writer was talking about Flying Eagle cents. (To me
"flyers" without a capital is printed pages.) Best to adopt a style of
capitalizing type coin names."

[Sorry for letting the 'flyers' reference slip - I did change some
others in the item, but missed this one.  The usage had confused me
at first, too. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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