1889 British Aluminium Company medal commemorating the Daville – Castner Process – medal Aluminium 49.5mm.
The Daville Castner process is a chemical method of producing aluminium using Sodium metal rather than Potassium metal. This was a short lived process as the Electrolytic process had already been invented and was being developed. The smelting plants were associated with hydro electric schemes which by the mid 1890’s had reduced the cost of aluminium considerably.
Aluminium was in 1855 a precious metal but by 1895 is was a cheap metal.
The date 1889 was the year of the Paris Exposition and it is thought that the medal was produced for distribution at this trade event
We have not had this medal before and would consider it to be a rare medasl
see https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/4211/1889-France-Aluminium-Medal/ which gives more info
