Penny Question

I possibly have a 1974-D Aluminum penny.
With extra "cud".

What do you guys think of this penny?

 

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Weigh it first. The 1974 Aluminum cent weighs less that a gram , 0.937 grams, where as the pre-82 cents weigh approx. 3.1 grams and post 1982 cents weigh 2.5, all with slight tolerance. The most likely scenario is a zinc coated copper cent. There are literally thousands of these produced yearly in beginning chemistry classes. After a few days of 'silver or gold' cents, they forget and spend it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Gold-And-Silver-Pennies/

 

I will have it weighed on a accurate scale and tested for what it is made out of.
I will see it again in person on xmas eve so I will take a better look to see the details better.

 

It would weigh very close to a single Splenda sweetener package ( 1.00 gram).

 

CAREFUL! It could be plated with lead or mercury! There was a similar discussion in another forum similar to what we have here. The cud could be excess metal/mercury!

 

Well too late because I handled it when I got it and recently, also others in my family have touched it. When someone changes the penny to silver or gold, how long does that effect last?

 

Your Cent sure looks plated. A true aluminum Cent would have much sharper details. Only a handful survived and most are accounted for.
Here is a PCGS attributed Cent as an example (not mine)

 

seen many of the aluminum cents, too many of them are either acid wash or plated

 

You mean you have seen many of the so called aluminum Cents.. which are actually plated

 

Appears to be plated, PMD.

 

I used to play with mercury as a kid. Even coated a dime or two in it. It has a slick greasy feel to it when its coated on a coin.

While it is a hazardous material, you'd have to be a complete idiot for it to have an affect on you as it takes lots and lots of exposure to mercury on a regular basis.

As for the coin, I'm guessing it's simply a plated and beat up/damaged 1974 cent. I'm not really seeing what could be considered a cud as much as just damage.

Weight would be an indicator toward any further investigation.

 

I think the reference is to the 1943 Steel Cents which could be seen as "aluminum" to a coin novice.

 

We did a lot of playing around with mercury in high school (late 60's). Would just take mercury from the lab storage room (also took saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal and made our own gunpowder) and kick it around the floor in study hall. Unbelievably lax controls of dangerous stuff, and a bunch of us kids acting stupidly like kids are prone to do. Maybe this and all the plating experiments are responsible for my short-term memory problems today
Steve

 

In the 50's and early 60's, it was not considered a hazardous material and could be found in ANY household thermometer.

Well, let me correct that, while it may have been a hazardous material (gasoline is hazardous) there were no government regulations in place to protect the ignorant from doing something dumb such as finding out what it tastes like.

The real hazard from mercury come, not necessarily from casual contact, but from contamination of fish, food, and water supplies.

From what I understand, mercury was used a lot in the manufacturing of paper to create bleaching agents which caused quite an environmental problem between 1962 and 1970 when a certain paper company was dumping their waste into English-Wabigoon River. That river fed a natural lake and the contamination for the folks downstream was devastating.

The resulting litigation and publicity of the mercury poisoning which occurred caused many laws to be passed to prevent it from happening again. Either by accident (i,e, broken thermometer, thermometers in the garbage, etc.) or by intent such as certain manufacturing processes.

BTW, mercury is naturally found in the environment since it is an element but it's occurance is very rare. It was used quite extensively in the past for refining gold (right up there with cyanide) and has been bound in ancient Mayan Tombs.

Google it as there is a wealth of information available all of which indicates that, other than direct injection into the body, casual contact is not life threatening.

Maybe one of our local chemists will chime in but what I'm saying is that simple, casual handling a mercury coated coin is not hazardous to your health.

Unless, of course, you swallow the danged thing and then all bets are off.

 

19Lyds, even gasoline should have been off-limits for me (ADHD). After watching "The Vikings" (Kirk Russell and Tony Curtis movie from 1959, I believe) I gave my deceased pet turtle a Viking funeral by floating it on a piece of wood (the ship) in a wheelbarrow with several inches of gasoline (the ocean). When I tossed in the match the "whoomp" was so loud people came out of neighboring buildings to see what had happened. Only singed eyebrows for me.

 

Kirk Douglas @Stevearino

 

LOL! Just like me, you probably wonder how the hell you made it this far??

 

Egads. Thanks green18. How could I mix up the name of one of my childhood heroes?
Steve

 

It is also a planet

 

And a god