The Coinage Metals Copper, Silver, and Gold

To date no tetrazene or tetrazadiene complexes of the coinage metals— copper, silver, and gold—appear to have been reported. 

Ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, iridium, palladium and platinum are the six heaviest members of Group VII1. They are rare elements platinum itself is the commonest with an abundance of about 10-6% whereas the others have abundances of the order of 10"7 % of the earth s crust. They occur in Nature as metals, often as alloys such as osmiridium, and in arsenide, sulfide and other ores. The elements are usually associated not only with one another but also with the coinage metals copper, silver and gold. The main suppliers are South Africa, Canada and the USSR. 

Mass-to-Atoms Conversion Gold (Au) is one of a group of metals called the coinage metals (copper, silver, and gold). How many atoms of gold are in a U.S. Eagle, a gold alloy bullion coin with a mass of 31.1 g Au ... 

Laibinis PE, Whitesides GM, Allara DL, Tao Y-T, Parikh AN, Nuzzo RG (1991) Comparison of the structures and wetting properties of self-assembled monolayers of n-alkanethiols on the coinage metal surfaces, copper, silver, and gold. J Am Chem Soc 113 7152-7167... 

Copper, silver, and gold (group 11) are known as the noble metals or coinage metals because they rarely react. 

Copper, silver, and gold—the coinage metals—have long been prized for their stability, or lack of reactivity (Figure 8.6). They can even occur uncombined in nature. Active metals do not occur naturally as free elements. 

The increased ionization energies of the heavier transition metals should not be unexpected by anyone who has had a modicum of laboratory experience with any of these elements. Although none of the coinage metals is very reactive, gold has a well-deserved reputation for being less reactive than copper or silver iron, cobalt, and nickel rust and corrode, but osmium, indium, and platinum are noble and unreaclive and therefore are used in jewelry platinum wires are the material of choice fior flame tests without contamination and one generates hydrogen with zinc and simple adds, not with mercury. 

Applying Give one chemical and one physical property of copper, silver, and gold that made them the metals of choice for use as coinage metals. 

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