Electrum: The Silver-Gold Alloy That Gave Ancient Coins Their Shine
July 10, 2026
About 26 centuries ago in the western region of modern Türkiye, shiny bits of metal broke loose from the slopes of Mount Tmolus, were picked up by a watershed, and tumbled along the bed of the Pactolus River.
Some of the ingots were gold. Some were silver. Some were an alloy of silver and gold called electrum.
The inhabitants of the small kingdom of Anatolia found those ingots just sitting there in the river and created a mythology to explain the preponderance of precious metals. The story went that King Midas washed his hands in the water to remove the curse of the golden touch.
From PCGS