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How Long For A Circulated Lincoln Cent To Turn Brown?

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BadThad's Avatar
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 Posted 12/13/2012  4:33 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It's all in the storage conditions and handling. Later in 2009 I was finding some of the 2009 in circulation were browning. When you find full red coins in circulation today, it's because they were stored well and rarely handled. A lot of folks toss coins in with other coins. If the cent was surrounded by these, they are can act as "sacrificial" metals absorbing airborne contaminants and protecting the cent.

You also have to consider collections getting dumped. Seems a lot of people just unload collections to banks, coin stars, etc. and sometimes a lucky collector finds them.
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BadThad's Avatar
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 Posted 12/13/2012  4:41 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
The so called handling has little to do with toning.


I have to disagree with that Carl. Finger oils and other contaminants introduced from handling is what imparts the deep brown color on circulated cents. Oxidation will darken a coin but alone it will not turn it full brown.
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BadThad's Avatar
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 Posted 12/13/2012  4:43 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
[CuCO3-Cu(OH)2] is a double salt of copper and is AKA copper hydroxycarbonate, AKA verdigris.


While that is one form of verdigris, the chemical composition of verdigris is far more complex than that.
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BadThad's Avatar
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 Posted 12/13/2012  4:50 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
when
it is occurs in pits in the surface, 'copper disease' is the cause, and some serious chemistry is required to prevent further damage.


I really, really hate the term "disease" or "bronze disease", it is completely incorrect. There is no biological disease process at work. It is simply a chemical reaction.

Most of the problem developed with the use of PVC holders which eventually degrade to produce HCl (hydrochloric acid). The reaction of copper with HCl produces copper chloride (verdigris) and the reaction is self sustaining with exposure to oxygen and water. It doesn't require "serious chemistry" to address the problem. The first step would be to neutralize the HCl with base and then dehydrate the verdigris it with acetone. If the coin is then stored properly, the reaction will not continue at a significant rate.
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 Posted 12/13/2012  11:03 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
I have to disagree with that Carl. Finger oils and other contaminants introduced from handling is what imparts the deep brown color on circulated cents. Oxidation will darken a coin but alone it will not turn it full brown.

Guess I'll have to agree to a point with that. Not the oils though since most body oils don't do to much to metals unless they are strong. Body acids and other contaminates do mess up any coins though.
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 Posted 12/13/2012  11:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add just carl to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
I really, really hate the term "disease" or "bronze disease", it is completely incorrect. There is no biological disease process at work. It is simply a chemical reaction.

And that is almost like saying don't say PENNY. A long time ago people started saying Bronse Disease and just like the terminology of PENNY, it gets used over and over and over.
And now to attempt to get people to say Chemical Reaction is just like getting the entire world to say CENT.
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 Posted 12/13/2012  11:47 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add BadThad to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
LOL!

Then just call it CORROSION.
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 Posted 12/14/2012  09:19 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add oih82w8 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
"I had some coins that were put on a shelf in our spare bathroom that toned VERY quickly."
How-Long-For-A-Circulated-Lincoln-Cent-To-Turn-Brown?
Edited by oih82w8
12/14/2012 09:20 am
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 Posted 12/14/2012  11:17 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add cladking to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Anyone: when retail banks get loads of pennies, do they very quickly circulate back out? Is there anywhere where mixed pennies coming in from the public wind up warehoused for a few years before they go back out?


Pennies are the one coin that would rarely sit in FED storage. Other denominations actually circulate so when people have a net dishoarding when the economy turns down many of these are not recovered since they have been discarded or lost. Normally no coin sits in storage over three years but it will be much lower for pennies. Of course billions of pennies will sit in piggy banks and change jars for very long periods.

It's just the lack of circulation that allows old red cents in change not government storage.
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