Coated permanent mold having textured undersurface

A mold for the permanent mold casting of aluminum comprising a metal body having an inner surface defining a molding cavity, and a physical vapor-deposited ceramic coating adhering to said surface, said coating having a thickness between about 2.mu. and about 20.mu. and conforming substantially to the microtopography of said surface, said microtopography comprising a plurality of peaks and valleys characterized by a Talysurf Series profile having (a) a mean line above and below which the areas under said peaks and said valleys are equal and a minimum, (b) a maximum height, R.sub.p, of said peaks above said mean line of about 9.mu. to about 13.mu., (c) a maximum depth, R.sub.v, of said valleys beneath said mean line of about 9.mu. to about 15.mu., (3) a roughness characteristic, R.sub.a, of about 3.mu. to about 5.mu., which characteristic is the arithmetic mean of the departures of the profile from the mean line over, and (4) a peak spacing at the mean line, S.sub.m, of about 400.mu. to about 500.mu. which spacing is the arithmetic mean of the sum of the spacings between the beginning of one peak and the beginning of the next peak at the mean line over a sampling length, divided by the number of such spacings over said length.