Meaning & use
billon
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An alloy of a precious metal, usually silver, with a large proportion of a base metal such as copper, historically used to mint low-value coins.
See it in a sentence
Many medieval coins were struck in billon rather than pure silver.
The collector specialized in billon coinage from the late Roman Empire.
A note on using this word
Billon coins tarnish more easily than pure silver ones because of their higher copper content.
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