Coated round wire

A round wire comprising a wire core with a surface, the wire core having a coating layer superimposed on its surface, wherein the wire core itself is a silver-based wire core, wherein the coating layer is a double-layer comprised of a 1 to 100 nm thick inner layer of palladium or nickel and an adjacent 1 to 250 nm thick outer layer of gold, wherein the outer layer of gold exhibits at least one of the following intrinsic properties A 1) and A2):

• A 1) the average grain size of the crystal grains in the outer layer of gold, measured in longitudinal direction, is in the range of from 0.1 to 0.8 μm;
• A2) 60 to 100% of the crystal grains in the outer layer of gold are oriented in <100> direction, and O to 20% of the crystal grains in the outer layer of gold are oriented in <111> direction, each % with respect to the total number of crystal grains with orientation parallel to the drawing direction of the wire.