Hey, speaking of white metals, about 45-years ago and friend and I were  
pulling back the carpet in his parents old house and we found a scattering of  
what appeared to be silver coins. For all intents and purposes, they were half  
and quarter dollars that dated from the 1920s. But they seemed lighter than the 
 silver coins we had in our pockets at the time. Since his dad was a deputy  
sheriff, we asked him and he took a sample off to work. The following week, he 
 returned to say he had some bad news and some good news. The bad news was 
that  the coins were counterfeit. The good news was they counterfeiters used 
alum,  which these days we call platinum. Apparently, in the 1920s alum was 
considered  as cheap as pot metal and the risks were worth the gains for 
counterfeiting  pocket change. The other bad news was that we could not keep the 
counterfeit  coins.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.