EARLY USES OF ALUMINUM AS A COMMON METAL

PREV ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE FULL ISSUE PREV FULL ISSUE

V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 26, June 26, 2016, Article 24

Last week Jonathan Brecher asked about early numismatic uses of aluminum [or aluminium] as a COMMON metal. Here are some reader responses. -Editor

Here is my earliest aluminum token/medal. It is 20mm, and from the Paris World's Fair, Exposition Universelle, of 1878. I was surprised, in looking at my holder, that I will have had it for 19 years next month. Add this one to the list of early "aluminum as a common metal" items. And, it even says aluminum on it.

I would challenge Russ Sears' aluminum medal of 1878 as being made of "common" metal. It is about ten years too early. The indication of "1 gramme" and the name aluminum suggests that it was still a precious metal item.

I think Pete makes a good case. This is what makes this an interesting topic - the answer isn't so easy.

But there is an easy answer to my QUICK QUIZ question: "What U.S. numismatic personality is intimately connected with the Hall process [for making aluminum]?" -Editor

After the Hall-Herout process was developed for the refinement of Aluminum, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company was formed. One of the founders was George Clapp, noted American numismatist. The company later became ALCOA.

Correct! Clapp was also a cofounder of the Western Pennsylvania Numismatic Society in Pittsburgh in 1878, and later donated his first and second sets of U.S. Large Cents to the American Numismatic Society in New York and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, respectively. -Editor

Bruce W. Smith submitted these these notes on the question. Thanks! -Editor

Someone asked the question in the last issue of The E-Sylum about the earliest regular of common use of aluminum in coins and medals. The first part is easy. The world's first aluminum coins actually made for circulation and put into use were the 1907 and 1908 coins of British East Africa (1/2 penny KM 6; 1 penny KM 5) and British West Africa (1/10 penny KM 1). Aluminum corroded too quickly in the humid environment and the metal was changed to copper nickel. So regular aluminum coinage begins in the 20th century, after nearly 50 years of experimentation in the United States and also in Europe.

As for medals made of aluminum, I would say the first regular use was for the Worlds Columbian Exposition (Chicago Worlds Fair) of 1892-1893. Dozens of different souvenir medals were made, some of them extolling the virtues of the "new metal". Among those who had medals made were the Illinois Pure Aluminum Company, the Cincinnati Pure Aluminum Company (there were a number of companies at the turn of the century with names ending in "Pure Aluminum Company") and the Pittsburgh Reduction Company -- which not long afterwards changed its name to the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA).

Before World War II, Alcoa was the only producer of aluminum in the United States, though there were many companies which manufactured products from aluminum. In the 1890's Alcoa was hoping for large orders for aluminum sheets or bars, but most of the products made in those days were "novelty products" such as tokens, medals and advertising items made in many forms (including business cards). The first successful large scale production of aluminum products were tea pots. They can be identified in antique shops by the use of screws or rivets to hold the parts together -- no one knew yet how to weld aluminum.

There are probably earlier uses of aluminum in medals, when the cost of the metal was not important to the issuer. Silver and even gold medals were common enough in the 1800's, so if some society wanted to award a medal, they might have had it made of aluminum at some time before 1892. I would not be surprised to find a pre-1892 medal issued by an engineering or manufacturing society.

I have not seen Russ Sears' 1878 French medal, but as I predicted, such a medal was produced by a progressive organization, in this case, the Aluminium Society. I have never heard of this society, but I am not surprised it exists. Note that France uses the same spelling as England -- aluminium.