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electrum

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Also known as green gold

thumb|Natural electrum "wires" on quartz, historic specimen from the old Smuggler-Union Mine, Telluride, Colorado, USA thumb|The Pactolus river, from which [[Lydia obtained electrum for its early coinage]] thumb|Electrum Phoenician metal bowls|Phoenician bowl with mythological scenes, a sphinx frieze and the repre­sentation of a king vanquishing his enemies, Cypro-Archaic I, from [[Idalion, 8th–7th centuries BC (Louvre, Paris)]] thumb|Brooch with a griffin protome, from the necropolis of [[Kameiros, Rhodes, (Louvre)]]

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Composition
  • History
  • Early coinage
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

thumb|Natural electrum "wires" on quartz, historic specimen from the old Smuggler-Union Mine, Telluride, Colorado, USA thumb|The Pactolus river, from which [[Lydia obtained electrum for its early coinage]] thumb|Electrum Phoenician metal bowls|Phoenician bowl with mythological scenes, a sphinx frieze and the repre­sentation of a king vanquishing his enemies, Cypro-Archaic I, from [[Idalion, 8th–7th centuries BC (Louvre, Paris)]] thumb|Brooch with a griffin protome, from the necropolis of [[Kameiros, Rhodes, (Louvre)]]

Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially and is also known as "green gold".

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “electrum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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