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 Replies: 26 / Views: 3,788 |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
SlurExe, I'm having the time of my life imagining someone trying to do something numismatic with Fluorine. It's kinda like the chemical equivalent of trying to shave a bobcat.
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Moderator
Canada
10458 Posts |
I have a beautiful piece of exonumia, with crossed geological hammers, struck on a pure molybdenum planchet. About the size of a silver dollar... I'll have to take a picture someday...
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2519 Posts |
Since they have Uranium listed in their periodic table I assumed it was okay to mention it. Glad it actually is. They mentioned planning to make them using gases, why not the one that reacts with pretty much everything  ![Can-Coins-Be-Made-Out-Of-Element-[x]?](https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/Altaira/20150121_ScreenShot2015-01-21at3_opt.jpg) |
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Valued Member
Canada
55 Posts |
There isn't a picture of the one made from mercury. How do they make this one without it being a liquid?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4593 Posts |
A lot of the oddball stuff is made from pressing the element with a binder... how much binder and how much element isn't said. What kind of binder - clay, plastic, etc. - also isn't discussed AFAIK.
It would be like a pokerchip with some added mercury. Handle with care.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1888 Posts |
Quote:
There isn't a picture of the one made from mercury. How do they make this one without it being a liquid? Possibly by mixing it with silver. Pretty much everyone who ever had dental fillings put in before the 1970's or so, is carrying around mercury in their mouths. These two metals form a 'solid solution' called an amalgam when mixed. I'm not sure what the percentage of silver needed to render liquid mercury solid is, but it probably isn't much. It was also a common thing to do in high school chemistry classes back before the true dangers of mercury were well known, to rub it on silver coins. The coin would absorb the liquid mercury until it entirely disappeared, leaving the surface of the coin mirror-shiny and greasy-feeling. Add enough mercury, and soon the entire thing would crystallize and you could break it in half with your fingers. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
How do they make this one without it being a liquid? Cast and freeze it, then you just have to keep it at -40 degrees or less. Mercury, being a liquid, will dissolve most metals into it. It used to be used as a way of gold or silver plating metal objects back before electroplating was invented. Dissolve the gold or silver in an excess of mercury to form a thin paste and then rub that on the object to be plated. The mercury paste would also bind to the surface of the object. Then heat the object to vaporize and drive off the mercury leaving a surface plating of pure gold or silver. Buff smooth. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1215 Posts |
If a mercury coin were worth 10 cents, would it be a Mercury dime? |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
I believe their mercury "coin" is a liquid, they're just putting it in a capsule so it doesn't flow away.
IIRC, they say somewhere that they're considering etching the capsule in some way to make the result look more like a regular series element "coin", but at the moment it's just a capsule with liquid mercury.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
They could mold the capsule so that it has features or lettering and then when the fill it with the mercury it would still show the "features" of the coin.
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Quote:
They could mold the capsule so that it has features or lettering and then when the fill it with the mercury it would still show the "features" of the coin. That's what they're planning to do basically. |
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Replies: 26 / Views: 3,788 |
First Page
Posted 01/20/2015 3:17 pm
