Tonight's "weakest strike ever" award...

...just appeared on eBay under Coins & Paper Money > Coins: US > Dimes > Mercury (1916-45):

One Pound Liquid Mercury, lab grade

Pretty sure eBay put its foot down on elemental-mercury sales many years ago; buy quickly if you're looking for it...

 

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eBay banned it for a reason... A good one too.


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Apparently it comes from the inner depths of Kilauea too!

 

C'mon, I played with it as a kid and it didn't hurt meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

Mercury is an element, just like Uranium, Gold, and Hydrogen. Each has their own peculiar dangers and should be handled by people who know what they are doing. Each also has particular usefulness in the right applications.

 

Funny thing is you can't ship it with USPS because of rules, good luck trying to find someone to ship it because I don't think UPS will ship it without a special carrier truck.

 

Haha, well mercury doesn't physically hurt you. It sinks into your skin at minuscule rates and has an extremely high risk of causing cancer and develops mental health issues.


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Actually it depends on the surface area of mercury under consideration and it causes nerve damage, not mental health issues.

 

Um. Yes. I completely agree that it causes nerve damage... Nerve damage results in mental health issues as well.


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That explains the spasms I've been having.

 

I always wondered about something. They do lab experiments with Cents to change it's color from copper to silver. They use Mercury as the element to stick to the surface of the Cent. I have heard some members say to be careful when handling Mercury coated Cents because it can make you sick... would that be true?

 

My Mmmom baaaathed in it everyyyyyyy day bbbbeffore IIIIIII wass bornnnnnn....

 

No coin would be mercury coated because the coating would become a liquid while room temperature. However, there is a possibility of there being a mercury alloy that is found in experimental coins, but I have never heard of that alloy ever having existed for intended circulation.


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That must be one big thermometer.

 

I would coat Lincoln cents with it.

 

Mercury, being a liquid metal, has a tendency to act as a "solvent" and dissolve other metals forming an amalgam. So when applied to a coin such as a cent it "coats" the surface with a silver colored amalgam of mercury and copper. This used to be used to gold or silver "plate" objects back before electroplating. A mercury/gold or mercury/silver amalgam would be rubbed on a metal object. The mercury would also bond to the object coating it with the amalgam. Then it would be heated to drive off the mercury leaving a thin layer of gold or silver behind.

 

If you have older gold coins, especially 19th century and earlier, chances are very high that the gold was extracted and/or refined with mercury. Gold in ore readily forms an amalgam, leaving impurities behind. Then heat the amalgam to vaporize the mercury, and gold along with silver and a few other metals are left. Huge areas of the western US and the world have been contaminated with mercury as a result. For example, California's largest natural fresh water lake, Clear Lake, is contaminated with mercury from an old mine. Calif. Fish and Game has suggested limits on consumption of fish from the lake.

In some areas of the world where gold mining is done by small companies or individuals, mercury is still used. Most of the world uses the cyanide process today to extract and purify gold. Paradoxically, cyanide is much more toxic as an acute dose than mercury. Swallow 100 mg of elemental mercury, and you'll live to talk about it; not so with cyanide. However, mercury is an element, and short of an atomic reactor, can't be destroyed. Cyanide is easily inactivated chemically, and if it does escape into the environment, doesn't last long.

Cal

 

Good luck getting it out of Hawaii, because I'm pretty sure you can't put mercury onboard a plane since it could eat through the aluminum in the plane. Maybe you could transport it via ship?

 

As far as federal regs go, up to 11 lbs of mercury can be shipped by air without any special label other than toxicity. Individual carriers can decide further limitations, including whether to carry it at all. If there were a small spill in a plane, chances are it would evaporate, creating toxic fumes, long before it would damage the hull.

Cal

 

I know that hobbyists still use this mercury technique. My dad likes to go panning for gold in upstate Carolina, and uses mercury to do exactly what you described.