Definição

• Bath Metal.  A brass alloy once used for striking medals. Named after Bath England, it was invented by William Wood (1671-1730) an English ironmaster and owner of copper and tin mines in western England. It was composed of 75% copper, 24.7% zinc and 0.3% silver. While satisfactory for medals it was too soft, unsatisfactory for a circulating coin. It was, however, used as the composition of the Rosa Americana coins, halfpenny, penny and twopenny, 1722-33, struck under contract to William Wood for circulation intended for Ireland but sent instead to the American colonies (because of the complaints of Jonathan Swift in The Drapier's Letters). Numismatic writer Walter Breen states that the silver in this composition was a purposeless waste and that the composition was  metallurgical incompetent. Some of the blanks were cast and rough, others heated before striking. "When new," he states, "the coins looked like brass; after brief circulation they became rough suggesting cast counterfeits." Because of the connection with William Wood the alloy was also called Wood's coinage metal  (which should not be confused with "Wood's metal" or "Wood's alloy," a fusible alloy of bismuth, lead, tin and cadmium).
  References:                                                                                                                                 
  NC8 {1988} Breen.

  excerpted with permission from

  An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

  For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

  COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

  Roger W. Burdette, Editor

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