Question

State whether true or false :

Coins can be made up of pure metals.

• A. True
• B. False

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

The value of the metal that makes the coins such as copper, silver etc. would then be worth more than the face value of the coin.

Before 1992 1p coins were 97% copper; in 2006 the price of copper was so high that the scrap metal value of one of the copper coins was 1.5p.

Pure metal coins wouldn’t actually stand up to being used for very long. Alloys are homogeneous mixtures (rather than chemical compounds).

One of their great advantages, over pure metals, is that they tend to be harder than the metals they are made from.

The atoms of different elements have different sizes, making it harder for them to move over each other than in the pure metal, resulting in a harder material

Therefore economically and strength wise it is not wise to make coins from pure metals.

Therefore, option B is correct.