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Message:: [QUOTE="Cachecoins, post: 4528323, member: 111237"]Encapsulated Neutron Irradiated 1943 Mercury Dime [ATTACH=full]1121464[/ATTACH] I found this to be an interesting relic of a very specific time and place. My family hails from Chatanooga Tennessee and a little town called Rossville right across the border in Georgia. Some people here may be familiar with this area as it is very steeped in history, particularly regarding the Civil War with places like Lookout Mountain and of course Chickamauga Battlefield Park in Fort Oglethorpe, the site of the Civil War Battle of Chickamauga, second only to the Battle of Gettysburg in terms of casualties. These Irradiated Dimes are from the Oakridge Museum of Atomic Energy in Oakridge Tennessee which proudly pronounced itself the 'Atomic City', which was relatively close to where they lived. Apparently my grandfather, who passed on long before I was born, made a visit to the Oakridge Museum if Atomic Energy and picked this up while there. <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridge3.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> An aerial view of the Oakridge Facility Apparently, back in the early days of atomic science, radiation and atomic energy were portrayed as relatively harmless and fun. At this time there were x-ray machines in shoe stores called fluoroscopes with viewers attached so you could x-ray your child's foot while in the shoe and see how well the shoe fit. Those would be gone when it was discovered that these devices, cute as they were, were toasting little kids toes. The encased irradiated dimes were another example of fun with radiation. Beginning in the late 40's and early 50's the the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies (ORINS), and the Graphite Reactor there was the world’s largest source of radionuclides in the world. The program of irradiating dimes was begun for the purpose of illustrating to the public the principle of neutron activation. <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridge%20irradiated1.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> The Oakridge dime irradiator A description of the process from a 1954 press release from the American Museum of Atomic Energy: "One of the most popular exhibits in the American Museum of Atomic Energy is a "dime irradiator." To date, more than 250,000 dimes have been irradiated, encased in plastic and returned to their owners as  souvenirs. The irradiator works as follows: A mixture of  radioactive antimony and beryllium is enclosed in a lead container. Gamma rays from the antimony are absorbed by the beryllium atoms and a neutron is  expelled by the beryllium atom in the process. These neutrons, having no electrical charge, penetrate silver atoms in the dime. Instead of remaining normal silver-109, they become radioactive silver-110. After irradiation, the dime is dropped out through a slot in the lead container and rests momentarily before a Geiger tube so that its radioactivity may be demonstrated. It is then encased in the souvenir container. Radioactive silver, with a  half-life of 22 seconds, decays rapidly to cadmium-110 (In 22 seconds, half of the radioactivity in each dime is gone, in another 22 seconds half the remainder goes, and so on until all the silver-110 has become cadmium). Only an exceedingly minute fraction of the silver atoms haveb been made radioactive." Between 1949 and 1967 possibly up to 1 million dimes had been irradiated. With the end if silver dimes in 1964 came the eventual end to the program although they did seek to gather remaining dimes in bank rolls and in circulation to continue the program for a time. The dime irradiator went on tour at times and was set up at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. The dimes we're encased in special blue plastic containers for that event but since they were not sealed, the dimes inside may not be the original. The Oakridge Facility is noted for employing many women who contributed to the development of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and of course the Atomic bombs used in Japan. <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridgeY12Girls-1944.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridge02.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridge4.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> The work performed at the facility was of national importance and top secret so it was common the see signs like the one shown below warning those who worked and lived in the area to keep this in mind. Today ORINS is now Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). <img src="http://www.cachecoins.org/img/xtra/oakridge5.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> Coin is my own and all other images are linked. Thanks![/QUOTE]

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