Scientists didn’t begin to unravel the mysteries of nickel until 1751. They named the ore Kupfernickel, literally “copper goblin,” from the German word Kupfer for “copper.” The Swiss 20-centime coin, first issued in 1881, was made of pure nickel. These miners blamed their inability to extract copper on nickel, a goblin of German mythology, who had “cursed” the ore. Nickel appeared again in the historical record when medieval miners in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) along the present-day Germany-Czech Republic border encountered a reddish mineral that they assumed erroneously was a copper ore. ![]() These cupronickel coins, comprised of a white-copper-like alloy that likely came through trade with China, were produced for only about 30 years. Nickel first appeared in coinage in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, around 190 BCE. This use of nickel was unintentional, as early Chinese metallurgists believed that white copper was simply an unusual type of copper. Around 1700 BCE, the Chinese began smelting nickel-rich copper ores to produce “white copper,” an alloy similar to today’s 75-25 copper-nickel (cupronickel) alloy. Tools and weapons of exceptional quality were fashioned from meteoritic iron-nickel alloys as early as 3500 BCE. Nickel is mined from two types of ores: surface deposits of laterite, a mix of iron and nickel oxides, and underground deposits of nickel-sulfide minerals.Īlthough metallic nickel is rare in the Earth’s crust, it is common in meteorites. In the Earth’s crust, where nickel occurs mainly as oxide and sulfide minerals, it ranks 28th among the elements in abundance, about the same as copper. Nickel is the fifth most abundant element on Earth most of it, however, is in metallic form and combined with iron in the Earth’s core. ![]() And nickel, along with iron and cobalt, are the only three elements that exhibit strong magnetic properties. It is much harder and less workable than gold, silver, or copper. A lustrous, silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge, nickel is as dense as copper and has a substantially higher melting point. Mint uses about 4,400 tonnes (metric tons) of nickel per year. The nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars in our pockets and purses today contain between 8.3 and 25 percent nickel. ![]() This cupronickel coin, dating to 185 BCE, depicts Greco-Bactrian king Agathokles and represents the first use of nickel in coinage. and Canada, provided a different look for much of the world’s circulating coinage, and evolved from a laboratory curiosity to a major industrial commodity. Flying Eagle cent (patterns struck in 1856), nickel has lent its name to the five-cent coins of the U.S. ![]() Nickel was first used in coinage in antiquity, then not again for 2,000 years. Yet behind nickel’s relative obscurity is an unusual story-and some impressive coinage credentials. While the histories and properties of gold, silver, and copper are widely known, that is not the case with nickel. Nickel is the least familiar of the major circulating-coinage metals, past or present. coinage, the story of the two nickels-the coin and the metal -are interrelated. It can refer to our five-cent coin or the metal. Nickel is a textbook example of a homonym. Editor's Note: After you enjoy Part I of this fascinating topic, we invite you to check out Part II >
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