Copper Penny Sorter

So who would know that you melted down your pennies?

Copper melts at 1981F, zinc at 450F and tin at 867F. Both tin and zinc are lighter than copper. This means that if you could achieve a temperature of 1981+, you'd have a melt of copper with a mixture of tin and zinc floating on top. Just skim that off and pour yourself some pure copper ingots. Save the skim and separate the tin and zinc the same way.

Or, you could melt the pennies with some copper tubing and wire added to change the ratio to something that can't be identified as coinage.

 

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Have you heard of convection? The convection cells that form in the melt will be enough to keep most of the zinc in solution. You will not have the tin and zinc floating on top of the copper.

 

I can't see copper ingots anyway. Cripes, imagine the size and heft for a measly $100 bar?

Copper would have to be spun into wire after smelting for it to have commercial value, adding to the refining costs.
Lance.

 

every once in a while this pops up and i think about making one,,except i would get some 1x2" wood to make a frame for the comparator on the bottom the get a cheap coin sorter with hopper on top and just rig up some type of chute from the discharge to comparator

 

I know a fella in Homedale, Id; who's been doing this for years. Both sorting & melting. Wont say specifically, but they're turned into art objects.
I met him once, then burned his address.

 

Who needs a machine.. I sorted all these by hand last year, except for the BU tubes in the ammo can, those were a gift.

 

Sorting by hand rules because you can get lucky and find little treasures like these:



Turned out to be a 1901 - my first IHC find, this was back in the spring of 2010. Since then I have found eight of them, the earliest an 1882 from a search two weeks ago.