When people say that the mercury dimes are made out of silver, i thought they were made out of mercury. Which one is it?
Silver - or .900 silver and .100 copper. Mercury itself is kind of a poison, so I really don't think they will ever make a coin out. A red book will give you the composition and weight of US coins. So it is a goood resource at about $13.00 - from Walmart.
Yeah, they are silver. Other than being a poison, Mercury is also a liquid at room temperature. In fact, to be a solid (at 1atm), the temperature would have to be below -38F. So, it wouldn't be a very good material to make a coin out of.
NO! Do not give him motive to go to WalMart! :loud: but yeah, its made of silver. Mercury is used because Lady Liberty has wings on her head, similar to the Roman god who wore a similar hat
The "Mercury" name comes from the resemblance between Liberty with a winged helmet, and the Roman god Mercury, equivalent to the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods (and god of thieves, among other things).
Besides, mercury is a liquid at room temperature. Many people mistook the Winged Liberty for the ancient Roman god Mercury. Mercury, however, had wings on his feet not his head and was supposed to be quite quick. The metal mercury is also sometimes called quicksilver. The winged head on the dime was an allegory -- freedom of thought.
"Mercury, however, had wings on his feet not his head and was supposed to be quite quick." Mercury also wore a winged helmet, which explains the confusion between Mercury and the Winged Head Liberty dime (It's correct title). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(mythology) and http://www.coincommunity.com/coin_histories/dime_1916_mercury.asp
Wow if that wasn't some quick posting! (there were only 2 posts in this thread when I started) I'd go with what SCNuss said as I was only pulling from memory.
alot of people believe mercury dimes are made of mercury even when you tell them its silver! why not go to walmart for a redbook? i got mine for $8 there. would you rather spend $8 at walmart or $13 somewhere else?
If they think its mercury, give them some real mercury... lol, they wont be able to hold it. anyways, because I dont like WalMart. I'd rather spend 5$ more at a coin shop to support them.
I had this obsession with owning some Mercury. An old timer (since passed away) told me when he was a kid they used to rub liquid mercury on Morgan dollars to make them shine. Well now days it isn't easy to obtain mercury. I had an old thermometer that broke and got a little out of that. Then at a tag sale I picked up an old house thermostat for $1.00 that has mercury inside in a glass tube. I haven't tried it yet but do want to experiment with rubbing it onto an old scrap silver coin.
The old timer told you right, but you don't really have to rub it in. On a silver coin, the mercury will just spread itself, it won't bead up like water, etc. It turns the coin very shiny and very slippery. I used to collect mecury when I was growing up and still have a glass airline bottle full sitting on my bookshelf. As I recall, I got most of mine from old-style thermostats that I would crack open. Another place was chemistry class in high school. The teacher would pass out this red-ish, rusty looking powder. We would place it into a test tube placed over a bunson burner. When the powder heated up, mecury fumes would be created but could not escape because of cotton wadding in the end of the tube. The fumes would cool and condense on the inside of the tube and then we could collect it. I remember getting all of the other kids to give me theirs. Man, it's hard to believe that I still remember all of this after almost 40 years.
as stated in an earlier post mercury is POISONOUS, voluntarily exposing yourself to the possibility of mercury poisoning seems recklessly foolish. There are a variety of places to learn why mercury is bad for you; here is the link to wiki's page on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning
Trust me on this one, don't mess with mercury. Back in the old days it was used in placer mining as the mercury bonded with the gold the miners were pulling from streams and rivers, it was an easy way for them to get the gold out quickly. Then they'd burn off the mercury and only the gold would be left. It's a heavy metal and breathing the fumes from burning are deadly in the long run. It's really bad stuff, you don't want this stuff in your system it could kill you!
