What is softer: ASEs or AGEs?

Just a question. I'm trying to bend a silver eagle ... With my hands. Wondering if it would be easier to do with a gold eagle

 

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It's a worthy goal.

 

But is it a fruitless one?

 

You could bite each of them and see which has a mark on it.

 

Gold should be softer, even at 22k, than silver. After all, the Gold Eagles only contain other metals for the sake of coining. But, why would you do that? Practice with junk silver, instead.

Edit: And, yikes! Don't bite either... You'll likely crack your tooth on the silver... And not sure you want to risk having some of the gold come off in your mouth...

Edit #2: If the AGEs you're talking about are the UHR AGEs, those are 24k, and would be much easier to bend than ASEs.

 

Not if you use the force.

 

You need to start "pumping iron" today. Perhaps start out trying to bend a piece of paper or rubber band.

 

Too much free time?

 

The way I see it, there's three things involved:

1. American Silver Eagle
2. American Gold Eagle
3. Your hands

Of those, I think number three is the most likely to yield.

 

That's a really interesting question. I'm not having any luck finding actual malleability figures for the 90% gold/10% copper coin alloy, and I don't have any coins I'd be willing to attack with an awl and a weight. My intuition is telling me that 90% gold, which was formulated to hold up in circulation, would be harder than .999 silver, which wasn't.

 

Aren't the gold coins smaller? I would imagine that would make it more difficult to bend than a larger coin.

 

IDK between ASE and AGE. ASE is 99% pure, while the AGE is blended with copper. Gold is much weaker than silver, but the alloy in the AGE might counteract that.

Go with a gold buffalo. Since its .999 gold, I am nearly certain its softer than either ASE or AGE.

 

I see.
Thanks

 

No matter which is softer I wouldn't bend a AGE. It will destroy the premium. For whatever reason if you must bend one go with the ASE.

 

Why? Its just bullion. If he lived near me he could bend one of mine. I would just hammer it flat to go back in the flip. The only "premium" in my mind is a recognizable coin so the authenticity and purity are not in dispute. I have no illusions that someday all of my ASE and AGE and junk silver is destined for the melting pot. Its simply a convenient way to hold it right now and facilitate buying and selling.

 

If he plans on reselling one of the AGEs in the future he would get less if it were bent or scratched. There is roughly a $40 difference in the sell price to provident for an off quality coin.

 

There is a difference between hardness ( point indentation ) procedure, which is determined by the surface of the alloy., and the ductile elasticity which would be bending. Then, the thickness of the sample and how much the metal was 'work hardened' by the striking of the coin, etc, affects the results. There is a rather obscure paper ( translated) which approaches this problem from a hard to understand methodology. The end result tends to say ( If all things were exactly the same, except the molecular basis silver -gold) that silver would bend easier than gold. IMO.

http://www.iaeng.org/publication/IMECS2011/IMECS2011_pp1221-1224.pdf

With all of the factors NOT the same between the 2 coins, You would have to do it experimentally and define it as a .999 Ag silver eagle and a .9xx Gold eagle or whatever.

Jim

 

Dude, I've eaten an AGE. Straight up. They're not that hard.

 

Yeah, but what about the day after?

 

Yeah, well I guess it would just be worth it to me to see someone bend one.

I literally could care less about my bullion. Like I said, I am pretty sure it will all get melted at some point in the future. Refiners pay by weight. When the current run on PM is over, there will be so many unwanted millions of AGE, and tens or hundreds of millions of ASE smelters will be running on only them for weeks at a time.