Penny Nail.. Or Nail Thru Cent

No this is not another coin struck on nail find.. I'm sure that by now we all know those are made in china!
This is something Interesting I found at work during demolition cleanup. Seems like many years ago some carpenter was striking nails through Cents for some strange reason. I've done contracting work for overs 25 years and have never seen this technique before. Here are the pictures.

 

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Red licorice?

 

Strange and interesting.

 

Haha.. No those are like plastic anchors.

 

My guess is a carpenter by day and numismatist by night hated the zlincoln changeover so much he held a personal protest known only to him

@SuperDave's gonna love this on multiple levels

 

Hilti gun loads. They're used to drive nails into concrete & block, and use .22 or .27cal blanks. The plastic finning is the equivalent of a sabot.

 

Yup. And I wonder how many people know what a sabot is. Guns and zlincols. That's 2 of what I thought you'd like. What about the galvanic corrosion of a nail through a zlincoln for 30yrs. At least 1 looks like an 85.

 

Putting Zlincolns out of their misery.

 

+1 sabot is a shotgun load to make the round more like a rifle bullet .
Probably didn't want the nail head to pull through .

 

It's also what they use on Mythbusters to fit odd things in cannons

 

Never hunted deer with a cannon.....however I'm sure it would really tenderize the meat.

 

Does PCGS make slabs that big?

 

Maybe they needed washers and it was cheaper than using nickels?

 

I thought the same!

 

Agreed that it was a cheap washer - probably found the 1st couple blasting THROUGH the wood and instead of getting a lighter load they just improvised.

Years ago the company I worked for leased the rest of the floor and the construction crew tore out the old walls and turned the 'public' restrooms into leasable space. Along with dividing up the floor into a warren of offices.

For a couple of weeks we had to open the door to our space, yell "cease fire - civilians" before venturing out to do our business. Not that they were shooting AT us, but we didn't have hearing protection. And every single plate and ceiling divider needed to be shot into the concrete every 24 or 48 inches - something crazy like that (Chicago fire codes).

 

Hilti is the maker and " Ram Set " is the gun . The nail is shot with a primer cap ..

Those cents were used as washer, to keep the nail from going through the object ....

 

....and the "sabot" - the plastic finning - is what seals the barrel of the gun around the nail for the shot. You can buy them with or without that washer.

I sell a ton of that stuff here in Philly (hardware is what I *do*), with so many walls concrete or masonry.

 

You guys beat me to it but I recognize those hilti gun loads. Have done some construction where those were used by the framers I'm a interior/ fine woodwork guy so I was doing the trim after they were done. Was converting basement levels into finished space the zincolns cheaper than buying washers to keep them from blowing thru

 

A Sabot is a projectile. Sometimes rifled for use in a smooth bore shotgun. Usually just a chunk of lead though either jammed in the end of a shell or by itself for use with a muzzle loader. In this case the projectile is a nail. The red fins are more of a wad so the power of the blank doesn't just blow around the nail. The primer cap doesn't shoot anything other than a spark to ignite the powder in the blank. And I agree the cents were definitely used as a washer. I've also seen them used as shims

 

A lot of the old nail guns were a lot harder to adjust pressure than the more modern ones. And new ones are a lot harder to put a nail thru your foot hand or someone's head too