Anyone collect mercury?

Not the dime, but the metal.

I have a large mayonnaise jar full of mercury. It weighs a lot. How much is mercury an ounce? Who could I sell it to?

 

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Because mercury is so poisonous, it is actually pretty difficult for an individual to buy or sell it. The market just isn't there any longer, except for the large quantities used by industrial customers. No one would buy or sell just a few ounces.

However, in industrial quantities, the price per ounce is around a dollar.

 

Dang a buck an oz? I'd buy it but i'm sure it's not legal to ship it Not that I have a use for it... but it looks like fun!

 

Well, further research may be needed, but according to http://www.minormetals.com/ Mercury ask is
[TABLE="class: prices, width: 0"]

[TD="class: ts_A, bgcolor: #FDE5CD"]Mercury ($/flask)[/TD]
[TD="class: td_A, bgcolor: #FDE5CD, align: right"]3000[/TD]
[TD="class: td_A, bgcolor: #FDE5CD, align: right"]3500

[/TD]
[/TABLE]
3000 being bid and 3500 being ask. I don't know the volume of a flask though.

 

I probably have fifty pounds of mercury. At a buck an ounce, that means I have $800 dollars worth of the stuff!!!

 

The standard unit is a 76 lb. flask
http://elementsales.com/

Buy/Sell/Trade:Wrong to list here, not a numismatic or bullion material . Couldn't even be listed on BST

 

The quoted price per flask is for pure. That in jars, cans, even full chemistry reagent, would be suspect. My college tried to give away 20 lbs of it in reagent "jugs" 15 years ago, and no one would take it legally off of our hands. Ended up paying close to $500 to have a hazmat company pick it up. The reason most want it today is to use it in a dangerous process of concentrating gold after panning. Usually a county fire department will have a hazmat contract to handle it.

 

I got mine from my brother-in-law, who got it when he worked at US Steel. I don't know what they were using it for.

 

This is one hilarious thread. I can just see someone sitting on the front porch of their house in Indiana with a jar of mercury. Har Har Har.

 

Really, have some respect. We don't sit on the front porch with our mercury, we sit on the wooden wire spool in the back lot while we use the mercury to turn cents into dimes. And most of us still have teeth, or tooth if that counts.

 

I was quoting that site, I did not mean list it here.

If you visit that site they have a BST contact for metals. Try emailing them and see if they want to buy it.

 

No disrespect intended. That turning cents into dimes is like turning lead into gold. Must be doing something right.

 

Mercury does have somewhat of a numismatic value. The Mercury pendulum is/was used in many antique grandfather clocks (and many other antique clocks) and finding one these days where the pendulum hasn't been broken is quite a challenge. Pristine examples are pretty expensive. They are difficult to replace if broken because of the issues listed above as nobody will work with mercury now.

Do a search on google images for mercury filled pendulum. Some of them can sell for 1000s of dollars for just the pendulum.

The reason that mercury was used in clock pendulums is the same reason it was used in thermometers. When the temperature changed, it caused the metal to rise and fall in the pendulum which compensated for similar changes made to the other metal parts in the clock. It made these clocks very accurate.

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Moral of the story is that I think this once common metal is being made valuable due to nothing more than excessive and overreaching government regulation.

 

I made a 1-oz MSE (mercury silver eagle). Unfortunately, the die pattern didn't take

 

I work with it all the time...but I certainly don't collect it.

 

They STILL use mercury in dentist offices? I thought that got outlawed years ago.

 

It lends a subtle taste to tuna.

 

Of course not. Amalgam is a great filling material that is perfectly safe for the patient and we have yet to invent a better functioning material. It's not esthetic, but it works great.

 

I thought the newer composite fillings were the best?

I've heard of people hearing voices in their heads from mercury fillings because they acted like an antenna. No joke.

 

The old fillings are much better. It's not possible for the fillings to act like an antenna.