The optical constants nAl and kAl of a 50/50 volume fraction Au/Ag alloy were derived synthetically by application of a Bruggeman (BG) effective medium expression. The alloy data base was then input into a Maxwell-Garnett (MG) effective medium expression to determine the absorption maximum of the nano- alloy/insulator composite (the volume fraction of the nano-alloy was equal to 5%). The absorption maximum (λmax) of the hypothetical composite was found to be 499 nm for spherical particles and was blue-shifted relative to that of a composite containing pure gold nanospheres (499 vs. 528 nm respectively). The transmission color at this wavelength was a red-orange. λmax in the range 512 to 519 nm (Au/Ag alloy between 60/40 - 70/30 volume fraction respectively) is needed to obtain the scarlet-red exhibited by the famous Lycurgus cup of 4th century Rome (1). © 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.