Greetings CT members, While roll-searching, I found this wheat cent, 1951, with a very odd color. It immediately stood out - bright and distinct. I put it with a sampling of other cents for contrast (to compensate for poor camera and lighting). These are my very first coin pics, with a cell phone, but hopefully some of the experts here will have some insights. It's in very good condition, but with a goldish color. Not the least bit copper colored, rather yellow-gold. Under magnification, it doesn't look in any way altered. Is it possible that this is a mint error - some composition imbalance? Or post-mint alteration? Have any of you seen this before?
And people used to mess with it all the time back in the day. My dad used to tell me stories about how they played with it in chemistry class in highschool in the 60's.
I used to play with mercury all the time as a kid and I never affected me me me me me me me me me meme me me me meme me me me meme me me me me
Actually if you coat a coin with mercury, it will be more silvery and the mercury will evaporate over a long time and leave it dull. More likely coated with zinc and then heated to make brass. Search "gold penny experiment"
Have you ever had a vaccination? Yes.Then you have been injected with Mercury. Ah the sheltered lives of today's youth. We were still playing with Mercury in Chem.in the 80's
Interesting - thanks for the comment. That would explain the color better. Since I've never plated before, I would assume plating something would dull, or reduce the sharpness of features - when I look at it through a 10x and compare it to some MS coins I have of that era, I don't see any significant reduction in sharpness. Or is the plating so thin as to not reduce the sharpness? I'm just trying to get to figure out my little mystery coin.
I imagine the plating is thin enough so as not to reduce the sharpness. I just ran across a 1976D plated cent this weekend and it looked perfect except the fact that it was a shiny silver color
Thermisol, the organomercury compound used as an antiseptic preservative in vaccines, was eliminated from use in the year 2000. In the 1950's and 1960s we had thermometers with mercury in them. As kids we all played with mercury including rubbing it on coins.
What would you be using it for in a college chem lab? We don't even use mercury thermometers any more except in selected classes.
If you take the cover off of some thermostats, you'll probably find a small, glass capsule filled with mercury. Chris
This was only for new vaccines for under age 6. Multidose influenza vaccine ( such as used in clinics and health deparments have thiomersal/thimerosal still as a preservative. Single dose prepared syringes and other 1 shot preparations for under-6 do not need it. It is safe according to the CDC and others.
