How hot are coins immediately after minting

For instance, take the Morgan Dollar, immediately after leaving the press were they too hot to hold in the hand or just warm to the touch?

 

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They wouldn't be too hot , this is going on over 25 years as a machinist and tool & die maker , who previously worked at a place that stamped auto parts on huge presses .

 

I once burned my hand by touching a metal ball bearing that I flattened with a hammer, I was bored and wanted to see if it could flatten and I could make a little disk out of it. I grabbed it after I hit it with a hammer and it hurt like heck. The burn mark stayed for at least a week. It was hot enough to boil water.

 

I don't wanna meet you when you're bored... you may carry a hammer.

 

Seems like metal struck with tremendous pressure would create heat for sure...

 

Reminds me of the time when I was stupid and touched a lawnmower muffler to re-tighten it 5 mins after I'd turned it off. Literally burned half my fingerprint off my thumb and index finger. After about 3 or 4 weeks of the skin rotting in bandages, i took it off and it was disgusting. But it healed up.


Really old, but this might help with your question:

 

Won't do that again, will ya?

 

Burned the crap out of my arm on a chainsaw muffler once too not fun!

 

Same thing happened to me lol, it hurt REAL bad.

 

EDIT: Seen another video. They melt silver coins at 1,150 C (2,102 F).

 

I've done a fair amount of metalwork especially blacksmithing and some welding and auto body work and that stuffs hot. But steel is far harder then coins. They want to strike them not melt them. So I bet there warm but not molten metal that'll scald you

 

I bet modern clad coinage is likely hotter off the press then earlier copper and silver and gold stuff. As it takes so much more pressure to strike as its harder

 

I can't offer much in the way of information regarding current coinage struck on modern presses, or 19th century coinage struck on steam presses, but your question immediately reminded me of an fascinating quote in Don Taxay's US Mint and Coinage (pg. 98). It provides a first hand account of the striking of early large cents at the first Philadelphia mint (approximately 1812), which directly relates to your question.

The writer is George Escol Sellers, who was apparently 4 years old at the time the event took place. What excellent memory! Perhaps his older brother later described it to him in greater detail than he might have recalled. Here is the quote:

"One day in the charge of my elder brother I stood on tip-toe with my nose resting on the iron bar placed across the open window of the coining room to keep out intruders, watching the men swing the levers of the fly press; it must have been about noon, for Mr. Eckfeldt came into the room, watch in hand, and gave the signal to the men who stopped work. Seeing me peering over the bar, he took me by the arms and lifted me over it. Setting me down by the coining press he asked me if I did not want to make a cent, at the same time stopping the men who had put on their jackets to leave the room. He put a blank planchet into my hand, showed me how to drop it in, and where to place my hand to catch it as it came out; the lever and weights were swung, and I caught the penny as we boys called cents, but at once dropped it. Mr. Eckfeldt laughed and asked me why I dropped it? Because it was hot and I feared it would burn me; he picked it up and handed it to me, then certainly not hot enough to burn; he asked if it was not cold when he gave it to me to drop into the press; he then told me I must keep the cent until I learned what made it hot; then I might, if I liked, spend it for candy."

I bold-faced the text which pertained to the heat of the coin after being struck. It seems from this account, that even during the usage of screw presses, that coins came off the dies at least mildly hot.

For more see Sellers book: Early Engineering Reminiscences 1815-40.

Jesse

 

The hardness of the metal would determine the force necessary for striking and the amount of heat given off afterward. 90% silver coins probably can be handled right off the press while 5 cent pieces, made predominately of much harder material, maybe hotter and not as comfortable to the touch.

 

Hey, Doug -- you know I respect your knowledge about coins, but you need to walk back the medical advice. If you've got your water heater set to 140-150 degrees, TURN IT DOWN.

The Burn Foundation -- Scald Burns

CPSC Burn Chart

Water Temperature ° F	Time for 1st Degree Burn	Time for Permanent Burns 2nd and 3rd Degree
110	(normal shower temp)	-
116	(pain threshold)	-
116	35 minutes	45 minutes
122	1 minute	5 minutes
131	5 seconds	25 seconds
140	2 seconds	5 seconds
149	1 second	2 seconds
154	instantaneous	1 second

What's the difference between 130-degree water and 130-degree desert air? Water dumps heat into your skin, fast, because it's got a lot of heat capacity. Air doesn't -- in fact, desert air allows evaporative cooling, so your skin never will get dangerously hot until you get mortally dehydrated.

A metal coin would be somewhere in the middle. Picking up a 140-degree coin would be painful, but it would be less likely to injure you than reaching into 140-degree water.

 

Different homes need a different setting. There can be a lot of heat loss by the time it makes it to the faucet.

I'm thinking a Morgan would come off the press being warm but not really hot.

 

I do not recall where I saw it but the coins are hot as they come off the press as indicated by the interviewer.

True, stamping a single coin a single time may not generate that much heat. BUT, stamp millions of coins at 600 coins per minute and the dies get pretty hot with that heat being transferred to the coin. Of course this doesn't even take into consideration that the blanks are heated to begin with in order to receive a good impression. I've always felt that a good number of the serious hits and dings that coins receive are from being dropped into storage/shipping/ballistic bags immediately after the minting process when the coins are still warm.

Besides, anything above 98.6 degree's is going to fell warm. Anything above 130 degrees, which is no where near melt temperature, is going to feel hot.

 

Thanks for the video!

It really shows how the working dies are punched! Way freakin' cool!