ALWAYS BE ATTENTIVE AND NOT FORGETFUL

I put a couple of cents into a solvent mixture and was not suppose to leave the coins in there any longer than a couple of hours. I have used this before and it always worked
pretty good....Well...It did....If you did indeed remember to remove the coins no
longer than a couple of hours, and you must inspect the coins frequently to see what
shape they are in....And the one thing you ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO DO is answer a
phone call from a family member and chat with him for over an hour. And then when you
do hang up, you must immediately go check your coins that have been in the solvent!!
For way too long already!....This is one thing you absolutely should not do!!!.....EVER!
And the idea of not remembering about those poor coins until....Not the next day...
THE NEXT EVENING is totally beyond belief...

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

and they pick on me for jokeing about soaking a coin in ketchup You're in for it
DOH!!!!!

 

What kind of acid did you use? Yes, I’d agree with every word you said.

 

Okay, a solvent, like distilled water or xylene or acetone, WILL NOT do that over the space of a day or two.

An acid certainly will. So will anything containing chloride ions. Remember, Zincolns are little electrochemical self-destruction machines, loaded up with more than enough potential energy to turn themselves into this kind of debris.

So, what did you use for soaking?

 

Looks like ACID.

 

Dude. Be kind.

 

Wow @SmokinJoe , if you hadn't specifically said you left what looks like it could have been a coin at one time, in a solvent, I'd have thought you might have left electrodes on that deteriorating piece of metal to eat it away.

Advice taken. I won't forget to leave any coin in solvent for an ungodly length of time (measured in solvent time).

 

Yes, be nice!

 

Too bad you didn't have a camera focused on it. You could have had thousands of hits on You Tube for "Watch a cent disappear." LOL

 

OK!........OK!.......I'll admit it....I messed up....Big time..........Tough to get old, let me tell Ya!.....No....It wasn't an acid....well, not at first it wasn't....But maybe it did turn into an acid some where down the road......What I used was mostly vinegar, then added some hydrogen peroxide, and after it calmed down from bubbling I added some baking soda...And that ( I certainly believe, was it ) One things for certain though, that will never happen again!!
( Well....I hope it won't )

 

Vinegar is most certainly an acid. Throw in hydrogen peroxide, and it's an oxidizing acidic environment. Even a copper cent would've been etched. That poor Zincoln never stood a chance.

(Even if you neutralized the vinegar with baking soda, you would've been left with a conductive solution. That's all a Zincoln needs to eat itself; a current passes between the zinc and the copper, and the zinc dissolves away. You could probably accomplish the same thing by scratching through the copper shell of a Zincoln, then dropping it into salt water, or water with Epsom salts dissolved in it.)

 

Thanks for that information JeffB, that was very helpful.

 

Hey Smokin Joe. Sorry about the coin but I think it is a blessing that you have a relationship where you can talk for over an hour. To quote a standard, that’s “Priceless”

 

Thank you Andy!!....And you are absolutely right...It is very Priceless