cracking a coin out of it's slab. I found out today it's getting harder for me to use my linesmen pliers to crack open a slab. yes I did put it in a Dansco.
Be careful. Those nice looking Lincoln's are a bit to close to that nail file, hammer and wood chisel. BTW: Please don't tell me you hit the slab with the hammer with the coin in it.
I find the vice method works best. Put it in edge to edge and slowly compress until you here it crack. It will break the seam cleanly all the way around.
Wow. Way too risky. If you don't slip and hit the coin, then it can be scratched by sharp plastic debris. When you open a slab if you are cracking the faces of the slab at all, you're doing it wrong. Just hit the corners with the ball of a pein hammer a couple times and it opens up easily.
Don't worry I was careful as those Zincoln's are safe. No I hit the scored the edges with my linesmen pliers the hit the chisel with the hammer with the coin in the slab. Much safer
Works great. Back when I lived in an apartment I used to just go down to the laundry room to crack slabs like that. All you need is the hammer and a hard sturdy surface like a concrete floor. When you do it, hold the slab on the faces over the coin. Zero chance of it falling out. You're basically just breaking the seal.
Another layer of insulation is to cover the flat face of the slab with duct tape, which will go a long way towards holding any shattered slab in place. It's the same principle as cutting acrylic, flooring, formica countertop or anything else which tends to fragment. As for me, I'll stick with my Dremel and cut only exactly what I want cut.
The guy with the Dremel has just fessed up. All you Newbies take note...this is how you are finding all those "strange" coins out there.
A Dremel won't produce a clip good enough to fool one of us, but with the right finishing touches it'll come close.
