I know these are pmd but what from? They're kinda neat looking in hand. A lot of dark and copper coloring. They came from the same roll so I'm guessing some bored person somewhere experimented with them before turning them in. Does heat do this or chemicals or something else?
What happened? A number of things. I've seen them like that in a few places. Urinal coins, spit cup coins, etc. etc. Could have even been in a fire and got scorched.
Nickel composition is solid Cupronickel. A mixture of copper and nickel. Any long term exposure will tone the copper. Earlier today I had to explain that to another member with many of my metal detected examples.. Dirt, soil, sand, chemicals such as fertilizer, harsh chemicals, brackish water and the weather can tone Nickels and clad coins that are also Cupronickel. Here are a few of thousands I have detected over the years..
sooooo… nickels in the cup holder. Car crash occurs resulting in a fire. Drivers escapes and attempts to extinguish the flames with the only liquid he has? I think we solved it!!!
Ok. I was thinking heat causing the copper atoms to congregate to the surfaces. Spenders for sure. Thanks everyone!
Going through the digestive system of a dog usually makes them look like that as well. It's that old trick where you discover someone didn't pick up after their dog in your front lawn. So you get out the hose and jet stream the dump until it's completely gone. And low and behold, a coin is the only thing left sitting on the lawn. The coin looks like the op's coins. Left a year or so longer on the lawn and they look like the typical metal detector finds.
Eew gross! Haha! 2-3 years ago when I first started getting interested in errors I would find stuff like that and get excited and swear I had some legit annealing errors because of the coppery appearance. I've come a long way I think.
