removing the copper layer on a penny

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Geo

Geo

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 1, 2011
Messages
7,069
Location
Decatur,Ala.
i have seen new pennies without a copper clad coating. to me, they look very cool. ive seen enough to lead me to believe that they didnt come from the mint like that. i would like to try and remove the copper layer without destroying the soft metal underneath. its aluminum or magnesium or some other light soft metal. is there a process that will strip the copper and leave the core metal intact.
 
It's Zinc. As soon as it is exposed......take a guess. :mrgreen:

Hollow Pennies might be fun
 
The core is pure zinc. Unplated coin blanks sometimes make their way through the mint's quality control screenings. While not terribly common, there are collectors who specialize in such errors.

While I don't know of any chemical means to deplate the cent, I have seen some where the copper has been stripped by fine sandblasting of the surface. It has a pleasing matte finish, but is easily recognized as "altered" by even the most casual numismatist.

Scott

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=coin_specifications
 
i saw a video recently on you tube about doing this same thing, you may try there, i will try to look it up and share a link. also check out nerdrage video on making gold (brass) pennies, i will be doing this with my son for his science expieriment

http://youtu.be/jRiBYMv6Tz4

there it is, there are also videos on plating copper pennies with various metals
 
rheslin2 said:
i saw a video recently on you tube about doing this same thing, you may try there, i will try to look it up and share a link. also check out nerdrage video on making gold (brass) pennies, i will be doing this with my son for his science expieriment

http://youtu.be/jRiBYMv6Tz4

there it is, there are also videos on plating copper pennies with various metals
Click to expand...

thank you rheslin2, if it works the way it did in the video, thats exactly what i was looking for. youtube is good for something after all. :lol:
 
no problem GEO, but definatly check out the nerd rage video on making gold pennies, then you could have copper, silver (in color) and gold (in color) penies......... the ladies at the grocery store will be most impressed......
 
rheslin2 said:
i saw a video recently on you tube about doing this same thing, you may try there, i will try to look it up and share a link. also check out nerdrage video on making gold (brass) pennies, i will be doing this with my son for his science expieriment

http://youtu.be/jRiBYMv6Tz4

there it is, there are also videos on plating copper pennies with various metals
Click to expand...
That method on youtube obviously works for removing the copper without touching the zinc. It is almost identical to an old plater's method I found in my 1968 copy of the Metal Finishing Guidebook. It's called the Mathers and Martin method.

To make 100ml of the Mathers and Martin solution:
Sodium hydroxide - 10g
Sulfur - 15g
Add water to 100ml
First, boil for 30 minutes to dissolve the sulfur.
Then, put the penny in and run it at 185-205F to convert the copper to copper sulfide, which is a loose coating that is easily removed. It doesn't say for how long.
 
Palladium needed some zinc for one of his projects a few months ago and this is how he got it. I dont remember what acid he used to remove the zinc from the pennies but whatever it was it left the outer copper plating intact. I will give him a shout and have him comment here.
 
Geo said:
i have seen new pennies without a copper clad coating. to me, they look very cool. ive seen enough to lead me to believe that they didnt come from the mint like that. i would like to try and remove the copper layer without destroying the soft metal underneath. its aluminum or magnesium or some other light soft metal. is there a process that will strip the copper and leave the core metal intact.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just me but if you live in The United States and deface legal tender it is a federal crime as far as I know. I recommend going to a different country if you want to melt down US coinage so your not breaking any laws.

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.
 
i appreciate the information. i certainly hope the mint doesnt investigate all the youtube videos on altering US minted coins. if they did, it would take at least until i was ready to go before they got to me for defacing a couple of pennies. that way, maybe the interest i owed on the few pennies may let me live in the cushy federal prison with cable TV, free internet, three meals a day, free medical and dental.... dang, i want to go NOW.
 
I do remember long ago, in some televised thing how money was being made into art and the loops around defacing laws. They also talked about taking a hundred dollar bill and taring it to little pieces. Keeping all together was supposedly the way around it. So keep your solution with the rest of the penny at all times. :lol:

As for the youtube people, what about the viewer's? Isn't there a law about witnessing a crime and not telling the authorities about it?
 

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