Greetings to the Group I am not a numismatist, but I am very curious about something I have come across which (to me) is VERY curious - and a mystery. I have an American quarter - 1978 - which seems perfect in every detail. The perplexing thing is its size: the diameter is only 1 cm! (5/16") http://tinypic.com/m/6z678l/1 http://tinypic.com/m/6z678m/1 It seems to be made out of metal. I can't imagine why such detail would be reproduced for something with no apparent practical value. At first I thought it was, like, a part of a child's game or some toy. But, if it were made to scale, the dime and nickel would be almost microscopic. And they would be lost (or swallowed) in an instant. The best part is that it turned up in a charity shop in Redhill, Surrey, England! As I said, it is a perfect representation of a 1978 quarter but heaven knows why anyone went through the trouble to make it. I'd surely love any ideas from the Group. Thanking you, Mike G
Hi Mike, it looks to me like a novelty item. Something that was made just for the sake of making it. There is a way to shrink real coins, I've been told, but I don't think what you have there is one of them. I could be wrong, and maybe one of the experts will chime in with more detail. It's a cool item for sure!
Looks like a shrunken coin to me. There's at least one person who makes these from real coins and you can buy for a small fee. Check out his site: http://205.243.100.155/ Guy~
Check out the links in this post in the thread 'small penny' or this thread 'shrunken washington quarter' amongst other threads that you can find floating around here using the CoinTalk 'search' function in the tool bar at the top of each page. Seems to be someone pops into CT about once a month or so with the similar curious tiny coin inquiry thing. Cheers!
Thats a cool site, It looks like a quarter on a nickle the coin i mean It met the which doctor prophecy!!
just received mini st. gaudens, was kinda curious to how they did it. Isn't this considered defacing currency?
I know there are others such as the Mini Coins These 'magic' prop coins appear on CT from time to time.
As the shrunken coins are crushed by the magnetic field they are made much thicker but they normally take on a "doughnut" appearance with the bulged area being more prominent than at the center of the coin or at the rim
wow. i looked at the site but still didn't quite know how it shrunk. thanks for putting in the magnetic field part. lol must of just saw the bright light and thought of a shrink ray i guess. lol
As the shrunken coins are crushed by the magnetic field they are made much thicker but they normally take on a "doughnut" appearance with the bulged area being more prominent than at the center of the coin or at the rim
Also, from the references given here, it looks like the shrink method results in a 10% to 20% reduction. This miniature I have is reduced by about 60% from the standard quarter size.