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 Replies: 181 / Views: 30,063 |
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
I was looking through a bunch of coins just scattered about on my dresser when I found the three brass plated pennies I made in chemistry class four years ago. It got me thinking about the oddest things I ever did with coins.
Note: All of these happened before I started collecting and had an appreciation for coins.
1. The three brass pennies
2. I used to cut dimes with a pair of scissors into corkscrew shapes
3. I once spent a month dissolving $1 worth of pennies in acetate acid.
I am just wondering if anyone has any other fun ones (collecting related or not).
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
Back when I was 12, I used to flatten out coins on a railroad track. I still have them (the ones I could find after the train scattered them) and happened to run across them last week. Some of them you can even see the date and mintmark. I collected coins back then, it was just fun seeing what would happen to them.
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Moderator
 United States
16677 Posts |
When I was 14, I put a Buffalo nickel on the railroad track! I know, I don't even have it anymore, I have since lost it. I think it was a 1918/7-D :-) swcoin.ecrater.com
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2130 Posts |
When I was about 13 I made a bracelet out of all 1976 coins (cent through quarter) for a girl I liked. And, Yes it work, she became my 1st girlfriend.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1682 Posts |
If you were to ask my adult daughter, she would say collect coins is the oddest thing a person can do. They kinda understand wanting one of each of the different designs but totally fail to understand about different dates, mintmarks, composition (for example....with the Kennedy half dollars 90% silver/40% silver/clad), or proof/unc/etc). Ken |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
I used to use 1 cent coins to fix the fusebox! Thankfully, my house now has resetting fuses.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1082 Posts |
I did the railroad track thing when I was a kid. I also used to use coins to make paperweights by setting them in hard plastic resin. Back when we learned to weld with acetylene in shop class there was a lot of people melting pennies or trying to run a bead across a roll of them to fuse them together.
That's about it. I do keep my eyes out at garage sales, etc. for things others do to coins. Those souvenir Mexican ashtrays made out of their obsolete coins come to mind; I think I've picked up about four for less than a buck each.
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Valued Member
 United States
61 Posts |
Quote:They kinda understand wanting one of each of the different designs but totally fail to understand about different dates, mintmarks, composition (for example....with the Kennedy half dollars 90% silver/40% silver/clad), or proof/unc/etc). A lot of people tend to think that. My sister thought I was insane for collecting two of every quarter in the States collection. I had to inform her that there are different mint marks on the coins. Edited by Greckel
07/08/2009 10:33 am
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Valued Member
United States
311 Posts |
I ended up with a 1944 Linc that had been machined completely smooth on the reverse- the fields were paper-thin. (roll-hunting find) I needed to cap a hole on my motorcycle carburetor and could not find the correct size plug for love or money, so I JB-Welded the coin over it  Has about a thousand miles on it now. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
I cheated at a computer game with coins. You stack the coins on the key that does the skill, and you have an instant leveling character. Just leave for 20-30 minutes and your guy is much better when you come back.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
My list of such things is really horribly long.
1. Natually put coins on RR tracks. Normal thing to do.
2. Lagged coins on concrete sidewalks to see who could get closest to the separation cracks
3. Once was an add for an original Black Forest Hunting Knife that was supposed to go through a half dollar of dollar coin. (All Silver back then). I purchased 10 of them. NONE went through any coins and I tried many times. Usually the knife just broke.
4. Placed coins in a tree and shot at them with .22
5. See who could throw a coin the farthest accross a River
6. Naturally made a necklace of a Silver Dollar for a girl by drilling a hole in it.
7. Placed on top of M-80 firecrackers to see how far up they would go
8. Hammered two together to see what would happen
9. Tried to melt a Dime onto a penny with a Butane torch
10. Dissolve pennies in H2SO4, diluted with distilled water, filtered, allowed all liquid to evaporate leaving some really nice CuSO4 crustals
11. Threw coins out of windows from tall buildings to see how many people would go out into traffic for them.
12. Epoxy glue a coin on to the center of a street where there is a lot of traffic
13. Poured liquid plastic over coins to make things like knives, paper weights, pen holders.
14. Took a wooden box of coins and burried it for the future.
15. Always placed a coin on the bottom of where concrete is about to be poured.
Our group of kids were rather distructive and wastefull.
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Valued Member
United States
61 Posts |
Quote:
I cheated at a computer game with coins. You stack the coins on the key that does the skill, and you have an instant leveling character. Just leave for 20-30 minutes and your guy is much better when you come back. I used to do this on the Sims in order to generate a lot of money. It is really quite useful. |
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Valued Member
United States
383 Posts |
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Rest in Peace
United States
1729 Posts |
I suppose cleaning heavily-encrusted Roman coins would qualify - I've spent months and months soaking them in olive oil and distilled water and then over a year in scraping off the concrete-like dirt ... only to find that they were so badly worn that I couldn't identify them.
However, I like just carl's #12 the best of all I've read so far. That's just evil!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
My list would be just as long as just carl's so I won't re-type it. I'm still trying to figure out how to make one of those toilet seats out of coins.  |
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Valued Member
United States
178 Posts |
A woman called our shop today and said she wanted a bunch of Mercury dimes with no numismatic value to decorate a birthday cake. I told her the best thing to do is buy the $5 roll of mercs that are sold as 90% silver. She thought that would be a good idea. She also said she once did the same thing with Morgans. Everyone got a Morgan with their slice of cake. |
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Replies: 181 / Views: 30,063 |
Posted 07/07/2009 11:51 pm
