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Show THE TINTS or COIN. Iteaaont for tarlatlmtt In lh (lolj n) Irenrli MlnlatK. Borne time o a frenchman placed together a number of gold coins of Krenrh mintage of the beginning, mid-I mid-I die and end of the last century Ho ns much surprised to tee thai they differed In color lie set about finding nut tho reasons for this difference and tho results of hi Inwatlgntlon hate been published In U Nature There Is a palenes nbont the jel.un of the 10 and IV franc piece, which bear the firiglM of Nnpolcon I. and lul X III that Is not oboened In the gold piece of later mintage One admirer of theee coins speak of their color aa n ' beautiful paleness" and ex-preatea ex-preatea regret that It la larking In later coins The explanation of It Is my simple The alloy that entered luto the I'renrh gold coins of those da) contained ns much sliver as copper cop-per and It Has the ilher that gave the coins their Interesting paleness. The coins of the era of Napoleon III wero more golden In line. The sllier had been taken out of the alloy Tho sold; coins of today hac n still warmer and deeper lingo of jcllow This Is because be-cause the Paris mint, na well as Hint In London, melts the gold and copper nlloy In hermetlrall) sealed boxes, which presents the copper from being somewhat bleached, as It nlwn)s Is when It Is attacked by hot nlr. so tho present coins have tho full wartimes of lint that n copper alloy ran glc. If tho coins of today arc not so Inndeoino In the opinion of amateur collviors, ns those Issued by tho first Nap.lron, the) nro superior to those of cither of the Napoleons In the fact that It costa less to mako them The double operation opera-tion ot the oxidation of the copper and cleaning It off the surfic of tho coin with nclds Is no longer employed, and tho largo elimination of copper from tho surfneo of tho coins, formerly practiced, prac-ticed, made them lees resistant under wear and Irar than ate the coins now In circulation |
