Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Burgess, post: 7497799, member: 105098&quot;]Not really, like I said, I&#039;ve had mine for,,, jeesh, must be nearing 30 years.&nbsp; the key to longevity with exposed zinc, is to keep it dry and leave it alone as much as possible, the exposed zinc will crust over the top layer a fine dust of zinc oxide and that&#039;s it and stop, but every time it&#039;s wet or rubbed, banged or knocked off, it will sacrifice more zinc to zinc oxide in order to protect the rest of the exposed zinc.</p><p><br /></p><p>it&#039;s why they don&#039;t last long in circulation. the zinc oxide keeps getting knocked off as soon as it forms day in and day out. simply putting it in a 2x2 or coin flip or capsule and keep it dry and it will not corrode further. Mine hasn&#039;t. I expect my 1990 will be around long after I<i>&#039;m gone or until someone stops protecting it from circulation and sets it free on the world again.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>scientifically, &quot;zinc rot&quot; is galvanic corrosion. you got zinc, and you have copper, two dissimilar metals on top of each other and in contact.&nbsp; add some moisture or water and the water becomes an electrolyte and you have a galvanic cell and a reaction between it causing rapid corrosion. Remove the electrolyte and no reaction, instead the exposed zinc sacrifices a fine surface layer to protect the exposed zinc and stops until that layer gets knocked off, or water is introduced to start the reaction. In Sals link, the corrosion on the D is due to this galvanic reaction from water/moisture exposure. a sweaty hand, a drop of sweat, someone let it sit in a cup holder and put a cold can on top of it,,, who knows, but no moisture, no Hydrozincite crystal formation. just a light layer of zinc oxide.</i></p><p><i>Zincite is the mineral form of zinc oxide, Hydrozincite is zincite with water as the name implies. SCIENCY!</i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in