How soft, or hard, are gold coins?

ER

If you accidentally drop a raw gold coin onto the floor, will it make a dink/dent?

Gonfunko

Is the floor concrete or carpeted, and are you dropping the coin from the top of the Empire State Building or from 1 inch?

ER

<< <i>Is the floor concrete or carpeted, and are you dropping the coin from the top of the Empire State Building or from 1 inch? >>


From your height onto a hard surface, say, tile floor.

airplanenut

It should get a ding. Gold is an extremely soft metal--that's why they're so hard to find totally clean, and why they can have a few more contact marks than, say, a morgan, and still receive the same grade.

Jeremy

kieferscoins

Let me test it with my 1933 $20 piece I have here on my desk.













Dang. It did leave a small ding on the obverse. Let me try it again just to make sure

Cameron Kiefer

mhammerman

Hardness Table for Carat Gold Alloys
Although there are many different alloy "recipes", to give you an indication of the hardness figures for 9 and 18 carat golds, the following table gives a range of typical "Vickers" hardness values for fairly common "recipes":-

Alloy Hardness as Cast Maximum Annealed Hardness
9 70 to 105 160 to 170
14 125 to 165 150 to 180
18 85 to 125 170 to 230
22 70 60 to 90
23.75 40 70
Silver 65
Platinum SC 65
Platinum HC 135


Key to Table
Silver = Typical sterling silver (925/1000)
SC = Soft casting alloy
HC = Hard casting alloy

mrearlygold

Yes, you will end up with el' rim nick


Tom

wam98

Funny Cameron

cladking

Old timers often tested gold by looking at the size of the mark made when a gold
coin is bitten. A bite made by the eye teeth with a little authority will leave an in-
dentation about a millemeter across. Most othe plated metals will leave a much
smaller mark and lead will be much larger.

...this is just another reason that clean gold can be tough.

saintguru

It's certainly the softest of all coinage. It will ding easily. Coins are 90% gold, 10% copper just to harden them, but as airplane said they will get all chattered just by being in a mint bag.

DominusDeus

Gold is also the most ductile element.

From the Guinness Book:
One gram of gold can be drawn to 2.4 km, or 1 oz to 43 miles, making it the most dutcile of all the elements found on Earth. Gold has the chemical symbol Au, from the latin word for gold, aurum. It is a soft, gold-colored metal and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. This element does not easily react chemically with other substances, and hence it does not tarnish with age. The fact that it retains its lustre is one of the reasons that it has been so highly valued and sought after in history.

saintguru

DICTILE...??? Good word!!

saintguru

Vote for AuH2O....

DaveG

YES!

I dropped a half sovereign (size of a quarter eagle) onto a carpeted floor from a height of about 3 feet and it left a very noticeable rim ding!

Now I only handle raw gold an inch or two above a padded tabletop.

dthigpen

My favorite past-time is to take 1 Dollar gold pieces and see how fast I can bend them into a taco-shape between my thumb and pinky.

ER

<< <i>Vote for AuH2O.... >>


Vote for Goldwater?

BigE

Be careful with 50.00 gold coins, I dropped one onto a hardwood floor in a PCGS slab and the top of the holder broke off lol------------------------------BigE

michael

21.6 karats

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think gold coins are really soft

yes if you accidently drop a gold coin on the floor yes there will be a dent how big depends on the coin


michael

100proof1957

Very soft !

Why do you suppose they never make jewelry out of 24 K ?

Always 10 or 14 k so it doesnt wear out overnite.

saintguru

24K gold is very soft...it would take a terrible beating in a relatively short period of time. By just adding 10% copper, the gold becomes exponentially harder...at 22K. At 18K or 14K it is simply more practical for everyday use. However when you look at ancient jewelry that was 24k it was very intricate...sometimes even woven because of it's softness. You can't get that with 14k.