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 Replies: 181 / Views: 30,067 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1599 Posts |
When I was 7 or 8, my mom worked for a dentist. I would occassionally talk her out of some mercury; not really sure what the dentist used mercury for. Obviously this was before we knew what we know about mercury now (1956-1957). Anyway, I would rub it on silver coins. It really made them slick and fun to play with. Handling that mercury may have alot to do with my current weirdness.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
That's funny about the mercury. When I was a kid in the early 70's I found a sizeable bottle of it and played with it until it was gone. Use to roll it around on the table and stuff. Mercury is a component used in the amalgam filling along with silver and other metal (might explain why it was in the dentist office)
Edited by ratman4762
08/07/2009 9:02 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
Although I didn't do this, we have a family tradition. My brother was born in England in early 1953. This is a superstition or folklore. But when a baby is born, a Silver Dollar is taped to the belly button where it was cut. The coin will supposedly prevent an "outie" and the baby will end up with an "innie". None of us 5 kids or Mom and Dad have "outie" belly buttons, although my brother had to use a Coronation Five Shilling in place of a Silver Dollar. I have his belly button coin, he would have sold it. Here's what it looks like. The rest of us used Silver Dollars, I don't know which one I have might have been mine. We know this is his though because his was different and the story always went with it whenever it was taken out of Dads collection for show and tell. This is the actual coin he wore for a couple/few weeks.  Edited by TNG
08/07/2009 10:11 pm
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Valued Member
United States
116 Posts |
Haven't done this yet, but giving a lot of thought to it. I bought 10 lbs of world coins. After sitting for hours with a huge bulky Krause Catalog trying to identify them (no fun), finding no silver - in fact many are aluminum and I hate aluminum coins, no appeal what so ever, I gave up. There's a kid (kid-young child) that lives a couple of houses down. I'm thinking metal box buried with about 8 lbs of world coins and a treasure map in the mail addressed to him.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10284 Posts |
CoyoteMoss that is a really neat thing to do. I think it would be a lifetime memory and probably make a heck of a collector out of the kid.
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Valued Member
United States
436 Posts |
I would use a penny or dime for a wedge to tighten up a loose axe handle. Just hammer it into the top and you've got a tight axe head!
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Valued Member
United States
230 Posts |
woah spam lol, but as far as wierd things I use to do with coins well, when I was a kid I was obsessed with bugs and since I grow up in a poor family I couldn't afford a bug capturing device so I taped up a bunch of pennies I found and made like a jail cell looking object to put them in, it didnt really work to well but it took me forever to construct, After I put it together and it didnt work I deconstructed it and started looking at the dates of the coins, I remmeber finding a 1959 D coin and ran up to my mother shouting I found something older then you mom, she wasn't very pleased but thats how I started collecting 10 years later is where I stand now, 18 and having completed State Quarters and Barber dimes....now working on my pennies(how ironic) |
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New Member
United States
44 Posts |
I use them as washers, shims or spacers all the time. I'm usually macgyvering something at a friends house without proper stuff. If I'm drilling them out as washers I use zincolns as they are much softer. But if I am using them as a shim against other metals I prefer copper (cents, nickles, or dimes) you can almost make any thickness with different combos of those 3 coins. Plus zinc will corrode much faster than copper in most circumstances.
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Valued Member
United States
88 Posts |
Two of my FATHER'S classics: 1. Lined the outside edge of a built-in swimming pool with Morgan dollars spaced about 1 dollar per foot. The dollars were carefully placed right into the wet cement. This was in the late 1950s. The owner of the swimming pool (not my father) was a person of some wealth and, clearly, a bit eccentric. It makes me cringe thinking about it today. I'm sure the cement and lime have terribly marred the coins. 2. Embedded an Indian Head cent into the stock of a 22 rifle as a decoration (when my father was 12). I still have the rifle. I am personally guilty of almost every prank described in this thread. I used a number of cents and dimes as shims to "level off" the various layers of a concrete fountain this past summer. The dimes are great for the "fine tuning." |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
Taped clad quarters to a piece of plywood and shot them with a .22 as of yesterday. Bullets didn't go threw but turned the quarter into a funny looking bowl.
What kind of .22 are you using? Sure couldn't be a .22 long rifle ammo, copper or Brass jacketed or it would have gone right through. Possibly a layer of steel in that plywood? At what distance? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
 Quote:
Haven't done this yet, but giving a lot of thought to it. I bought 10 lbs of world coins. After sitting for hours with a huge bulky Krause Catalog trying to identify them (no fun), finding no silver - in fact many are aluminum and I hate aluminum coins, no appeal what so ever, I gave up. There's a kid (kid-young child) that lives a couple of houses down. I'm thinking metal box buried with about 8 lbs of world coins and a treasure map in the mail addressed to him. Why not just get a jar of that liquid plastic stuff and make something. Anything. Then put it on ebay as an fantastic thing from some unknown great artist. For those that are to young to remember it used to be considered good luck to place a coin in a place where concrete is to be pourcd or inside a mold to make those concrete yard animals. So How come no one has mentioned wishing wells. Edited by just carl
11/25/2009 6:05 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
851 Posts |
.22 LR Copper Jacket. The coin wasn't really taped well I kind of just stuck a bit on the back and the bullet didn't hit it right in the center, knocking it off. I guess the backing didn't provide enough support for the bullet to pierce it.
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Pillar of the Community
Thailand
1509 Posts |
Reading the food/coins topics reminded me of my mother. It was (probably still is) a tradition in Great Britain to put coins in the Christmas pudding. Back as a child these would be silver sixpences or nickel-brass threepences, if times were particularly hard as was often the case. As there were six of us kids at the end she had to ensure that everyone got a coin. Being the eldest I probably got the best deal over the years. As for hygiene? It never occured to us.
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Pillar of the Community
Philippines
1156 Posts |
This topic reminds me of some of the many ways I dealt with coins before I took them seriously as a collector: a. 40 years ago and with bare fingers, I rubbed mercury on a coin to make it pure mercury white in appearance. Nice! I was very young then and was inside the class chem lab, did it only once, my fingertip turned very light orange, and I stopped-concerned. My classmate (the one who showed me how to rub it in), did a lot more than 2 dozen coins! He died of leukemia 5years after that. Didnt knew then that mercury penetrates the skin b. My first upright table drill resulted in a lot of holed coins c. ever tried a 1 cent metal coin as a slingshot load? it totally veers off course! d. at school, I did weld 4 copper coins sandwiched together using an arc welder station. I thought the teacher would get mad, instead showed me on how to do it properly  Nice topic Greckel  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9349 Posts |
Quote:
How come no one has mentioned wishing wells.
The topic is odd things, wishing wells are normal. Steve  |
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Replies: 181 / Views: 30,067 |
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Posted 08/07/2009 8:59 pm
