Orichalcum or aurichalcum, ὀρείχαλκος is the name of a metal or two different metals. Old writings from ancient Greece talk about orichalcum and the Romans made coins out of a metal they called orichalcum, but they might not have been the same metal. People today are not sure exactly what it was. Some scholars think orichalcum was the ancient Greek name for platinum. Others think it was an alloy, or mixture, of copper and either gold, tin, or zinc. Scientists examined Roman coins and found a mixture of copper and zinc.