50C - Silver in Lucite Tomb

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When I frequented hobby shops in the mid-to-late 1970s, you could buy kits and supplies for making these -- molds, resin, and activator -- but it was a bit pricey.

I just did a quick check, and it looks like that's still the case. To make a block several inches on a side containing (say) a date set with a silver half, quarter and dime, you'd probably pay more for the resin than for the coins.

 

I salute you, @lordmarcovan for your obvious breadth of knowledge about coins. You and just a few others are excellent resources for those of us who are are not so accomplished.

 

I bought this one yesterday. Thinking about cracking it out since it's XF. It doesn't make much of a paperweight since it's so light.

 

I once "helped" a pawn shop dealer remove the "silver" dollars from a toilet seat during the silver rush of the 1980s. In his case that was a big mistake. The dollars were actually very good foil impressions and there were no real silver coins. The copper highlight coins were real but damaged after we got them out. We only did that once so I don't know if that is common or not.

 

You guys (I think it’s been all male posters so far on this thread) have given me a great start to the morning.

Along with seeing the cardinal, Gambel’s quail and curve-billed thrasher at the feeder this morning as we leave our AZ rental, it makes for a wonderful morning!

BTW, my little brother, when he was about 10, took a used toilet seat and framed his school photo in it and hung it on the wall in the basement. So, @lordmarcovan someone DID hang a toilet seat on the wall.

Aside from that, you’ve seldom been wrong, IMO!

Steve

 

I don't recommend it. I tried "cracking" out some common, polished clad coins from one of those toilet seats. It was hard work, and any time I managed to crack the plastic enough to expose the coin, the coin itself was generally bent by the time I got it loose.

It's probably possible to dissolve the plastic with the right solvent, but it would take a lot of patience. If I had a really valuable coin to get to, I'd saw or shave away as much plastic as possible first without reaching the coin, then use solvent.

 

Yeah, sounds like I should let it be.

 

@Jack D. Young , does the half cent above look counterfeit? The obverse doesn't have me worried, but the reverse does after a second look. It is corroded slightly and cleaned. The lettering looks a little thin, and a couple of the leave look wrong. Could be tooling, though, to remove the corrosion???

 

1804 C-13. Plain 4 no stems variety. Someone tooled the reverse. The leaves had their veins tooled. Probably just someone messing around with it. Besides the tooling, it looks authentic.

 

Thank you.