Many French horns, for example, are made of nickel silver, an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel (it's silver in name and color only), and some are made of nickel bronze, an alloy of copper, tin, and nickel. (Brass itself is an alloy of copper and zinc.) Many brass instruments are silver-plated (sterling silver on brass), and some are gold-plated.

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Electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, was used to make coins in Lydia (now western Turkey) in around 650BC.

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The time it takes to refine dore silver bars, which are a semi-pure alloy and usually created at the site of a mine, are somewhere in the middle of jewelry and electronics.

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The use of maillechort, a tarnish-resistant, creamily beautiful but easily marred alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, sometimes also called "German silver, " for the plates and bridges is a case in point.

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