 Gibraltar Millennium Coin.
I have a feeling this is one of those coins that isn't actually meant to be spent. Its face value is 5 Gibraltar Pounds, whatever that's worth. I paid $35 for it. It's one of only a very small number of coins that's ever been minted out of titanium, probably because the stuff is pretty hard to work with, and most people wouldn't appreciate the advantages of coinage you could build a jet engine out of.
Dan Lewis, the source of this coin, sent the following story about it:The titanium coins were minted for Gibraltar by the Pobjoy Mint in the UK. Only 2001 of them were produced, and I think they have kind of given up on making more titanium coins because the hardness of the metal makes it very difficult to work with, not to mention how quickly it destroys the dies. They did issue one other Five Pound coin in the year 2000, this one to commemorate the famous "Tuppenny Blue" postage stamp, which is currently valued at $800,000. I think they were already committed to minting the second coin before they figured out what a pain it would be to produce coins from titanium. The contrast in weight between this coin and my similarly-sized niobium coin is dramatic.
Analysis by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials, University of Illinois (partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant DEFG02-91-ER45439) indicates that the coin is essentially pure titanium.
Source: Dan Lewis
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 14 June, 2002
Price: $35
Size: 1.5"
Purity: >99%
Sample Group: Coins
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