I was going through about 5 ponds of old wheat backs and I ran acrossed this 1936-S That is silver in color. It has a very fine Copper line going through Linclons face at a 45 degree angle the back is a solid silver coler. The coin has mor than likely been cleaned because of its shine. Has anyone ever seen one of these of know anything about them. Any help would be much appreciated.
Interesting article Roy.It mentions that this experiment was done on post '82 cents but does it also work on the older copper ones? I noticed the cent pictured is 1936.
The surface of a post-'82 cent being plated is also copper, so there's no reason the result would be any different.
If the coin is slick or slippery feeling then Becky nailed it as being coated in Mercury. If that is the case DO NOT handle it any more with bare hands.
The coin is both slippery and slick and it is in a 2x2 but why not handle it? Stupisd question I guess But I dont know the answer.
Mercury is a poison. I don't see it could cause too much damage and cause cancer because it is such a small amount, but just to be safe you might not want to touch it.
Back when dinosaurs walked the earth and I was in high school, it was considered a lot of fun to break thermometers and then use our fingers to rub the released mercury on cents and nickles so they would look like silver coins. Of course, in a fairly short time they turned grey and ugly, but what the heck. As the only common metal that was liquid at room temperature, it was also used in chem lab experiments of various types. Needless to say, no one yet realized that, as stated on >> this site <<: Oh, yeah - we got rid of our handiwork by spending the nice shiny coins. :goof: (Sometimes, as the extent of the dangers facing human life forms becomes better known, I have to wonder how enough of my generation survived to fight in Korea and parent so many of the baby boomers. )
Yes Mercury, like all heavy metals, is a poison but it is nowhere near as dangerous as it is made out to be. It won't pass through the skin, and even ingestion of the metal isn't that hazardous. The greatest danger comes from inhalation of mercury fumes. That is how it poisoned the hatters. The hot pressing of the felt vaporized the mercury and the fumes were inhaled. (This is also how it tended to poison gold and silver miners who used it to extract the metal from the crushed ore. The metal amalgam was heated to drive off the mercury and recover the other metals.) If the metal is reacted with acids and organics the resultant compounds can be very poisonous, but the metal itself is not really all that hazardous.
Actually....mercury gives off vapors at room temperature. Heating it would of course increase the vapors. Here's the complete story: Elemental mercury is a liquid and gives off mercury vapor at room temperature. This vapor can be inhaled into the lungs and passed into the blood stream. Elemental mercury can also pass through the skin and into the blood stream. If swallowed, however, this form of mercury is not absorbed out of the stomach, and usually passes out of the body without harm. Inorganic mercury compounds can also be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs, and may pass through the skin. But the compounds can also be absorbed through the stomach if swallowed. Many inorganic mercury compounds are irritating or corrosive to the skin, eyes and mucus membranes as well. Organic mercury compounds can enter the body readily through all three routes-lungs, skin and stomach. Personally, I'd rather be cautious and skip the accute kidney failure and slow painful death thing
Silver Plated!!! That is what it is i took it to the local coin master and he determined it to be silver plated for novel reasons.
EDITED---You posted a link in the Auction forum...that is the only place that a link can go...that is the rule...please go by the rules.
