Which is softer Copper or Clad?

dlimb2

Thank You.

lordmarcovan

Well, copper is softer than nickel, and clad coins are two outer layers of copper-nickel alloy bonded to a copper core, so I would have to say that copper will be softer than clad, since the outer layers of clad are mostly nickel.

dlimb2

Thank You lordmarcovan....my your next detector coin be wonderful...and do not ruin it be very gental...

lordmarcovan

Thanks. I still haven't gotten out this month.

One of our MD Forum members found both a 1795 Liberty Cap cent and a 1788 Vermont copper this month, so I would say the "Best Coin" portion of the detector forum awards is tied up nice and tight for September!

airplanenut

I'd think clad, because it's copper with nickel, and as LordMarcovan said, nickel is extremely hard...

cladking

The outer clad layers are the same as the five cent piece; 75% copper and 25% nickel.

The cladding is much harder than pure copper and is harder than bronze and brass.

dlimb2

I wish I live down there, I would be out there with ya.

dlimb2

I was just trying to figure what kinda damage copper could do to a clad coin...how hard it would have to be hit to leave an indention.

dlimb2

How hard would a clad coin have to be hit with a copper coin to make it's planchet bigger.

Rob790

Hardess is not a simple question. When talking about hardness you must also refer to the state of the metal - ie. it's degree of work hardness. Nickel is harder than copper and copper/nickel US coinage alloy is harder than copper but all of this is only for the totally annealed states (no work hardness) of the respective metal right out of the furnace. Work hardened copper can be harder than the copper/nickel US coinage alloy. I really think that the hardness of most standard coinage metals are close enough to each other to be comparable. Some are harder than others but not hard enough that you can readily notice much of a difference by casual methods. You can easily hammer a copper or zinc coin impression into a clad coin and not noticeably stretch out the clad coin if done with light enough pressure. Try it. Your 11 cent piece is not mint made and with a little experimenting you could replicate it.

Besides, depending on the date you may actually want to compare harness of zinc to US nickel cupernickel alloy and not copper. Even the US gold alloy is a lot harder than people realize cause of the copper added to it, it is significantly harder than pure gold that can not be work hardened.