Oh scottie.
> Coins are made of rare earth metal blends, like silver, copper, nickel, and gold.
Those are not rare earth metals. They are metals, but not rare earth metals. Those are "any of a group of chemically similar metallic elements comprising the lanthanide series and (usually) scandium and yttrium. They are not especially rare, but they tend to occur together in nature and are difficult to separate from one another."
Also, nickel isn't rare by any definition. Nickel is the fifth most abundant element on Earth.
> So metals are only money when its in a small circular token form factor, but not when its melted together into a heavier bar. Got it.
No, that's also wrong. "The characteristics of money are durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability."
Gold fails the acceptability test because to be money, something must be broadly accepted as a medium of exchange. It is not accepted by anyone. Walk into a Walmart with a brick of gold and they'll tell you to get stuffed. You'll get the same response at Home Depot or if you try and email Amazon. That's why it's not money.
> Oh, so only the government definition of money is whats relevant here, and only of the last ~100 years. Historical and physical contexts of money are irrelevant.
They're relevant in antiquity. Not so relevant today. Like a hitching post. What matters isn't even the government definition but rather the social definition.