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1859 Penny How Yellow Is Yellow

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Ugly's Avatar
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1733 Posts
 Posted 05/18/2010  12:23 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ugly to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
@biokemist16 Does that wink mean you have an XGT 5000 at home that you rent? :p

Yeah I know there are other devices, I'm sticking to things I've typically found in QA labs but like everything once you retire - your knowledge base can drift out of date rapidly. Mine has.

Point of fact thought, I don't see a TPG needing this to identify a brass coin. The colour really is a dead giveaway.
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 Posted 05/18/2010  2:04 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bosox to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The tests I had done on the two bronze coins were done with some form of XRF at a testing company here in San Diego. Totally non-destructive. Cost about $45 per sample.

That brings up another point. Many cleaned coins take on the yellow color of brass. Just about impossible some times to tell the difference. The two I had tested consisted of one yellow one I thought might be brass and one bronze for a control coin. As stated previously, both came out 95/4/1.
http://www.victoriancent.com

2011 & 2025 Fred Bowman Literary Award Winner, 2020 J. Douglas Ferguson Award Winner, & 2022 Paul Fiocca Award Winner. Life Member of RCNA.
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 Posted 05/18/2010  3:21 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add biokemist6 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nope, I do not have access to an XRF but BadThad does use one is his line of work. Thanks for listing you cost bosox, I figured $50-100 but that was only a best guess on my part.
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Ugly's Avatar
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1733 Posts
 Posted 05/18/2010  3:28 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ugly to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Well this discussion has definitely added to available resources. I guess I should not be shocked by the drop in prices on these technologies, it's been that with all tech so why not this.

Thanks gents.
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 Posted 05/18/2010  4:15 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bosox to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
When I did the tests, I posted about it on another site. Here are the more precise results that I posted:


Coin #1 - 1859 cent in Very Fine - weighes 4.31 grams - 94.37% copper, 1.13% zinc, 4.50% tin.

Coin #2 - 1859 cent in Almost Uncirculated - weighs 4.36 grams - 94.91% copper, 0.72% zinc, 0.17% lead, 4.20% tin.

Obviously the composition of both coins is quite close to the nominal 95% copper, 4% tin, and 1% zinc specified for the issue. The melting room at Heaton got it right on these two. Given the weights of the coins, the rolling mill operator did not. He rolled the bars too thin.


http://www.victoriancent.com

2011 & 2025 Fred Bowman Literary Award Winner, 2020 J. Douglas Ferguson Award Winner, & 2022 Paul Fiocca Award Winner. Life Member of RCNA.
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Ugly's Avatar
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 Posted 05/18/2010  4:43 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ugly to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
From my POV that's a substantial deviation for only two samples. By the mid 19th century metallurgy was actually a science, weights and measures were actually accurate. Machines and machining on the other hand... well, some were better than others.

Some of this can be accounted by the fact that they made all kinds of planchets and were responsible for a great many alloys. Just common reuse of smelting equipment will account for some differences. A short measure of tin after an extra long tea break might account for others.

I admit to curiousity.
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