A noble metal (NM) can stabilize monolayer-dispersed surface oxide phases with metastable nature. The formed 鈥渙xide-on-metal鈥?inverse catalyst presents better catalytic performance than the NM because of the introduction of coordinatively unsaturated cations at the oxide鈥搈etal boundaries. Here we demonstrate that an ultrathin NM layer grown on a non-NM core can impose the same constraint on the supported oxide as the bulk NM. Cu@Pt core鈥搒hell nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with FeO patches use much less Pt but exhibit performance similar to that of Pt NPs covered with surface FeO patches in the catalytic oxidation of CO. The 鈥渙xide-on-core@shell鈥?inverse catalyst system may open a new avenue for the design of advanced nanocatalysts with decreased usage of noble metals.