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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,983 |
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New Member
Canada
4 Posts |
hello again. is there an easy way to know if the dime is .800 or .500 silver? was there a bluenose dime minted or just the centennial in 1967.
tkx. carol
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Pillar of the Community
United States
581 Posts |
It's my understanding that there is no way to easily determine .800 or .500 composition. Apparently the only way would be to do some tests on the coin, which would more or less ruin the coin.
I do not know the answer to the second question :)
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
10743 Posts |
In 1967 the centennial dime was minted with a mackerel design on the reverse, the Bluenose design was resumed in 1968.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
I used to get 67-68 Canadian silver coins in change, and I did notice some were a duller silver color that tarnishes quicker. While hardly definitive, I think it's possible to spot the difference, since one has 2.5X more copper. The difference between .925 and .8 coinage is visible too. Update: weighing is a very good idea, but I don't have precise figures. Obviously the .8 would weigh more. If you had enough '67 dimes, I bet you could eventually come to 2 distinct average weights and sort by that.  Edited by KurtS
02/23/2008 2:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
Can't the coins be weighed?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
Based on the $1 silver dollars:
1937 .800 silver .200 copper weight: 23.33 g
1971 .500 silver .500 copper weight: 23.30 g
I don't think a few milligrams here and there is enough to make a difference, certainly not on a single dime.
Perhaps with a reactive chemical like the one used by jewellers?
Marc
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
quote:
1937 .800 silver .200 copper weight: 23.33 g
1971 .500 silver .500 copper weight: 23.30 g
Just so you know--the 1937 $1 was 36mm diameter, and the '71 was 32.13mm diameter. The difference between metals is more significant than that comparison, but those weights are puzzling because silver is approx 30% more dense.  I'll look around for an equal comparison. Edited by KurtS
02/23/2008 3:41 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
965 Posts |
The .500 and .800 silver dimes are identical in weight. The only way to tell the difference is a specific gravity test, and that would ruin the coin. If dealers don't specify a difference when charging prices, then there obviously isn't an easy way to tell them apart, unfortunately.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
" The .500 and .800 silver dimes are identical in weight." Ok, perhaps that's true after all, thanks! So I'm going to skip the calculations on similar dimensions for those two alloys  Of course, if one really needed to know, there's a non-destructive spectrograph test that's done often to authenticate jade, and should work on a coin too. But since there's no market value difference between .5 and .8 for '67, I guess it hardly matters, lol. Edited by KurtS
02/23/2008 4:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2408 Posts |
Kurt,
Just so you know... I was comparing the 1971 SILVER dollar not the Nickel dollar.
The ones I was quoting are of the same size, +/- 0.03 mm.
Marc
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Marc, ahh...gotcha. Since the '71 $1 is almost 4% thicker, that might account for the discrepancy...I won't do all the math on a Saturday |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,983 |
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Posted 02/23/2008 06:35 am
