I have a big rare earth magnet I use for testing silver. I took my magnet and placed it on the silver. It doesn't stick, but the magnet kind of "hovers" over the silver. It's hard to explain.
If the item is silver and you slide the magnet down the item, it should move more slowly than if it is not silver.
It's weird, it don't feel like magnetism, it feels more like "gravity" like if I drift the magnet over it, the silver is the sun, pulling the magnet closer. It don't have that "grab" like magnetism does.
I believe what you are experiencing is called diamagnetism. I am sure Jim (desertgem) will be along soon to explain it all to us. TC
TC is correct, but no quantum theory explanations today. Diamagnetism are the items we usually think of as non-magnetic, such as gold, silver,wood, frogs, etc. Paramagnetism are items that are magnetic when an external magnetic field is applied to them, but the magnetic effect ceases when the field ceases. Ferromagnetism is magnetic and retains the effect without an external field. As in math where we have + numbers and negative numbers, diamagnetism has a negative correlation, so some items such as gold, silver will tend to "very slightly" oppose magnetic effect, although the stronger the magnet, the more it will oppose. Some materials can be made to "hover" over a very strong exotic metal magnet, and I have even seen photos of a live frog "hover" over an extremely strong magnetic field many time over a MRI machine. Of course we don't know how the frog felt about the effects So yes, the effect you felt was a slight opposition to the magnetism of the rare earth magnet. Jim
maybe not as good as Jim will probably explain but my thoughts are simple...Silver plated Bismuth. Bismuth actualy replels magnitisim and can be used to create an "antigravity" plate. 2 plates of bismuth over and under a rare earth magnet will cause the magnet to be suspended in mid air. If your coin is silver plated bismuth it would go a long way to explain that "hovering" feeling you're describing.
