aluminum core bronze 1973

For very good reasons!!

 

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Meh. All you really need is battery acid and determination.

On the other hand, I still occasionally run into hydrofluoric acid as an etchant at flea markets or hardware stores. I'd rather handle nitric any day of the week.

 

Those glass etchers !!!!!!

 

I have it... but no hydrofluoric

 

There's actually quite a lot of stuff that I always wanted as a science-geek kid, but won't have in the house now... that I have to pay for insurance myself.

 

The 1942 experimental aluminum cent was struck on a double thickness planchet. They were trying to see if they could get the weight up higher because the regular thickness was way too light. Something they apparently didn't consider in 1973 with the experimental aluminum cent. And something they seem to be rediscovering every two years (at a cost of millions of dollars) as they continue to try and find a replacement material for the cent. (That has a manufacturing cost, not including materials, of over one cent.)

Makes GREAT toilet bowl cleaner. Best bowl cleaner on the market was Tidy Bowl which until about 10 years ago was 19% Hydrochloric acid. It is probably still the best commercial one but the HCl concentration is down to 9%. (most are 2% or less)

 

You would be Sheldon's hero.

 

The stuff we used to buy is called "The Works", and it's 9.5% HCl, with water and some surfactants making the balance. I don't know what surfactants work well in 10% HCl, but I figured I could make up my own somewhat-diluted solution from hardware-store muriatic. It smells stronger than the store-bought stuff, but the lack of detergent doesn't seem to make much difference in performance.

 

Yep, even if they manufactured cents from a material that cost nothing, they'd still lose money on every one.

As do the people spending or accepting them. If your cashiers earn $12.00 an hour, they earn one cent every three seconds, so unless they and your customers are very quick, you're paying them more to wait for and count pennies than the value of the coins they're counting.

But don't you dare propose discontinuing the coin!

 

Throw some napalm into that "Works" mix . really clean out your drain and all of the neighbors probably. Boy were my chem teachers happy when I went over to the Biological side

 

Buying muriatic acid at the hardware store I was warned how dangerous the stuff was....uh...

 

It's always nice when a retail clerk gives a chemistry professional safety instructions for the proper handling of chemicals.

Yeah, I know, the person was just doing their job

 

Yes that was the one I meant, don't know why I said Tidy Bowl. And The Works like I said used to be 19% HCl (I still have a bottle of the old stuff)

Of course the sales clerk didn't know he was a chemistry professional, and it is good to know he was warning people. Muriatic acid is not something to be handling without at least some knowledge.

 

Yeah, I would've been inclined to give that clerk a thumbs-up if the lecture was accurate. (And gently correct him/her if it wasn't.) Concentrated hydrochloric acid is nasty along several dimensions -- bad for people, pets, metal stuff, and its vapors can both travel and linger.

It also trashed the finish on a kitchen counter where I apparently dribbled it during transfer.