# silver paint and a couple other questions



## RobertK2 (Jun 12, 2011)

I have two bottles of paint that is heavily laden with silver. This was used to repair printed circuits and was the base for plating copper or other conductive metals. Will it be hard to extract the silver or is this ready for melt even though it has the paint organics in it.

I also have a bottle of dalic plating gold solution, acid plating. Unknown quantity of gold. Is there a process for removal or just sell it as is?

Is it still illegal to melt, destroy US Currency, coins? I got quotes for silver coins and was surprised at how much one gets ripped off for selling silver coins.

Thanks


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## Harold_V (Jun 13, 2011)

RobertK2 said:


> I have two bottles of paint that is heavily laden with silver. This was used to repair printed circuits and was the base for plating copper or other conductive metals. Will it be hard to extract the silver or is this ready for melt even though it has the paint organics in it.


Not in my opinion. All that is required is to incinerate (the refiner's secret weapon), then digest in nitric. Silver would be recovered with copper, as usual. 



> I also have a bottle of dalic plating gold solution, acid plating. Unknown quantity of gold. Is there a process for removal or just sell it as is?


Unless you can find a buyer that is in need, you most likely will not receive much for the solution. It's a guessing game for anyone that may be interested. 

Why not attempt a recovery by cementation? It may respond to copper, but if not, it most likely would respond to zinc. Don't expect much.



> Is it still illegal to melt, destroy US Currency, coins? I got quotes for silver coins and was surprised at how much one gets ripped off for selling silver coins.


It's a common belief that it is illegal---but it's not illegal to melt silver coins. It is illegal to alter them in such a way that they can be used fraudulently. Strangely, that's not true of pennies and nickels. It is illegal to melt them. 

Harold


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## peter i (Jun 17, 2011)

Harold_V said:


> Not in my opinion. All that is required is to incinerate (the refiner's secret weapon), then digest in nitric. Silver would be recovered with copper, as usual.
> 
> ........
> 
> Harold



I did exactly that to a bottle of silver paint a couple of years ago, and it worked like a charm.

I alloved it to precipitate the silver, poured off most of the clear "lacquer", allowed it to dry out in a plastic bowl, transferred all of it to the crucible and heated it.

It produced quite a bit of smoke, and then a very nice flame out the top hole, but I could cast a nice little lump of silver that was processed along with some other scrap later.
I did not analyse it, so I can't tell you what metals were in it besides silver (the lump did not quite look like normal fine silver IMHO)


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