How do I measure the thickness of a coin?

Great caliper-photos ...

Ummm, but none of you are measuring the "thickness" of the coin

Mr. Crankypants

 

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I actually know pickin & grinin. Give the chance to get to know someone before you diss them.
He's actually one of the good people.
There's been a whole lot of trolls on the other forums of ct, I would imagine some people are just getting tired of it.

 

I gotta say that members of this site have been cordial and extrememly helpful to this relative newbie. I have yet to find a member who gave me guff for even my most ignorant questions. Doug, John Anthony, TIF, Bing to name a few are always available and helpful. I, myself, am also available but I don't know anything.

 

I think @Alegandron measures thickness of the flan. I have never recorded any thickness measurements but have taken them out of curiosity on my thicker coins.

 

Oh, and I purchased calipers from Air-Tite for like $6 when I was still entertaining the idea of putting all my trade tokens in Ait-Tites. I know other coin supply websites carry them but you could save shipping and probably find one locally. What I do like is that it's plastic and I feel safer touching my coins with them.

 

Show the coin, Ed!

 

Because I enjoy Aes Grave, and most of my collection is BCE, there seemed to have been wide variances in Ancient coin standards prior to the influence of the Roman Empire. Therefore, many of my coins have very thick profiles. I measure the flans from the top and bottom, vs. everyone's side by side. I also measure thickness of the coin. I have several coins that are thicker than the total width of many of my smaller coins!

 

I don't think there's that much value in measuring the thickness of a coin. That varies depending on how soft the metal was and how hard the die was whacked in the mint. It has little value when it comes to attribution/identification.

 

Perhaps. People didn't used to record die alignment either, but it turned out to be helpful. For example some mints usually used an alignment, but others used a random alignment.

Many digital calipers have a "depth gauge" feature. Similar to the tread depth tools for automotive tires. Perhaps die depth will be useful and coin thickness will be a waste of time. My idea is to see if I can take something that was formerly judged qualitatively and measure it quantitatively. For example, if I measured a bunch of coins could I say things like "High relief (4.2mm, even for the Babylon mint which is typically 2 to 3.7 mm during this period)".

If I show the coin in this thread people will be jumping on with their Eastern Mint Alexanders, then any coin with Herakles. Soon my question will be forgotten. I'll get around to posting it on some other thread later.

 

How to measure depth with a caliper:

 

Maybe it could become a new way to spot forgeries to measure die depth and coin thickness. It depends how consistent the range is on each issue. Perhaps some issues are all over the place while others are very consistent. If we don't measure we won't know. How about picking a specific type and measuring a lot of examples to see what we find?

 

That picture assumes the deep part and the highest part are right next too each other. I can figure out how to do the measurement (I'll probably drill a hole in a transparent plastic pane). I posted here to see if there is a well-known technique for coin depth measurement. I am getting the idea there isn't.

 

heres a pic of measuring
the relief / height of an Alexander tet. I measured 6 of them, postum and lifetime, all are 4,5 - 5 mm

 

That's what I would do. I have a depth micrometer, but it wasn't purchased for coin measuring. They are quite a bit more expensive, but very easy to use and more accurate.

 

I seldom measure thickness of coins. I usually measure the thickness of cast bronze items, especially bars.

 

I use the harbor freight calipers, but for soft metals, a piece or two of electrician plastic tape over the jaws will save you from ulcers. You can then use the 'zero' button to correct the value. If you plan to use a metal depth gauge, tape or instant glue a straight bristle about 5mm in length, so the metal doesn't touch the coin. acetone will remove the super glue after use.

 

I use plastic calipers. They might not be as precise as metal digital calipers...but I'd rather be 0.2 or 0.3mm off than have a nasty scratch on the coin from using calipers with a material that's harder than the coin's metal.

 

I never treat my coins nastily enough to scratch 'em, but I certainly don't baby them either ...

=> that's the beauty of ancient coins (they've seen a whole lotta hands!!)

 

@stevex6 I use the same to measure diameter. It is completely enought precision for our aimes )) all other is a NASA devices for ancient coins