I Found An Odd Indian Head Cent

Would use in a fuse box make a cent smaller and lighter? I've heard of people used to use cents this way.


-MV

I will try to add some pictures here. It is just slightly wider than a new dime. The suspect coin is on the right; a regular Indian Head is on the left.

Bummer man, poor coin probably had more than one bad trip by the looks of him.

Why would someone put in acid? Was that a method of cleaning or just someone having fun?

There are probably several different acids that would work. How long it would take would depend on the acid and the concentration. It can even happen naturally. Oak and black walnut leaves are high in tannic acid. Run off from decaying leaves to a puddle withthe coin in it would do it eventually. Sanitary sewers are often high acid environments. Areas downwind from coal fired power plants tended to suffer from acid rain. In this case the acid being sulfuric. Standing water there could also do this. So you can't say for sure if it was deliberate or not.

Phosphoric acid will achieve this result given enough time, as well as acetic acid or citric acid concentrated to a high strength, but sulfamic acid or sulfuric acid are more likely, both are common in liquid and gel dip/cleaner/polish type products. Hydrofluoric acid, too, if you're the dangerous type.

That's for all the feedback, everyone.

jmkendall, I was wondering that as well. I would think by the time the rim was eaten away, the images on both sides of the coin would be more eaten away than they are. Anyone else care to offer a judgement on the coin?

Shane

The acid eats are all the surfaces at roughly the same rate so the coin keeps the details even as it becomes paper thin. The rim dissappears because one of those surfaces being eaten away is the edge of the coin. As it gets eaten the diameter of the coin gets smaller and the rim disappears. (The inner edge of the rim can't get closer to the center of the coin, but the outer edge does. When outer meets inner, no more rim.)

And if it was just struck on a thinner planchet the surfaces would still be smooth, the low relief details would still be present, and the high relief area would not show detail at all.