Shrunken Toonie - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 9 / Views: 2,572
nalaberong Pillar of the Community Canada 2805 Posts	Posted 03/08/2014 10:35 pm I thought I had lost this years ago Size comparison: Report this Post to the Staff

dialog_gvf Pillar of the Community Canada 1581 Posts	Posted 03/08/2014 11:28 pm In the past, the explanation has always been being dropped and left to soak in acid. The surfaces definitely have that look. Report this Post to the Staff
nalaberong Pillar of the Community Canada 2805 Posts	Posted 03/08/2014 11:46 pm Nope! The company that does this has a store: http://www.capturedlightning.com/fr...esting1.html Basically, they have some very scary paraphernalia that makes these coins thicker and smaller with electricity. They even do custom orders! Report this Post to the Staff
lyradnoj Pillar of the Community Canada 548 Posts	Posted 03/09/2014 01:05 am So it has nothing to do with the decline of the value of our dollar? Report this Post to the Staff
dialog_gvf Pillar of the Community Canada 1581 Posts	Posted 03/09/2014 11:47 pm Oh, that is freaky. But, there must be a solvent involved. Applying electricity to a steel/nickel coin is going to make a circuit, not change the coin. Report this Post to the Staff
dialog_gvf Pillar of the Community Canada 1581 Posts	Posted 03/09/2014 11:50 pm Another thing. The shrinkage factor looks far more extreme on the coins shown on that site compared to the coin in the OP. Report this Post to the Staff
nalaberong Pillar of the Community Canada 2805 Posts	Posted 03/09/2014 11:58 pm Some coins are more conductive than others - apparently the best results can be gotten with Sacagawea dollars because of their clad composition. If you shrink bimetallic coins too much, the ring and core will separate because different conductivity = different shrinkage rates. And there is no solvent involved, just very scary amounts of electricity. They explain how it's done (this process also crushes cans) and show a nice video of the spark their machine makes. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16837 Posts	Posted 03/10/2014 12:12 am It's not the "electricity" that shrinks the coin, it's the magnetism. But to create a powerful enough magnetic field to deform metal like this, you do need an awful lot of electricity. The trick is doing it with a bimetallic coin, since the different metals will react to the magnetic field differently; the technique works best for solid pure metals and alloys. When they try to shrink an American clad coin using this technique, the coin usually just tears itself apart. I suspect that's why the shrinkage on this coin is minimal; any more, and the core would simply have squirted out. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
DBM Pillar of the Community Canada 9865 Posts	Posted 03/10/2014 12:38 am From the site linked to by nalaberong Quote: The Quarter Shrinker works very well on clad dimes, quarters, half dollars, Eisenhower, silver Morgan and Peace dollars, Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, small Presidential dollars, and many foreign coins. It works less well with nickel and nickel-copper coins, and it has very little effect on plated steel coins. It also works well with older bronze and copper-zinc alloy pennies. However, since mid-1982, US pennies have been made using a zinc core with a thin copper overcoat. During shrinking, the thin copper layer vaporizes and the zinc core melts, leaving an unrecognizable disk of molten zinc accompanied by a messy shower of zinc globules throughout the blast chamber. Because of the greater hardness and much poorer electrical conductivity of nickel-copper alloys, the shrinking process doesn't work as well with US nickels, shrinking them by only about 10% even at 6,300 Joules. Larger copper-nickel coins, such as the UK Churchill Crown, seem to be almost impervious to shrinking even at 6300 Joules. The coin seems to be as tough as its namesake! interesting read here; http://www.capturedlightning.com/fr...hrinker.html "Dipping" is not considered cleaning... -from PCGS website Edited by DBM 03/10/2014 12:41 am Report this Post to the Staff
pennysaver Pillar of the Community Canada 937 Posts	Posted 03/10/2014 10:22 pm Okay, that is one cool site... go Tesla! Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 9 / Views: 2,572

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