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There actually is a machine that separates copper cents from Zincolns
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
I'm not plugging it, just very surprised that someone had developed a machine to separate copper cents from copper-plated zinc cents. Not that I didn't think it was possible, but I never suspected there would be enough demand to offer them to the public.
Link.
Link.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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Wonder if they have one for silver?
The weight difference between a zinc cent and a bronze one is 0.61 grams. The difference between a clad quarter and a silver one is 0.58 grams.
TD
Then there's the old fashioned way...........A kiln ...
just kidding...
........wouldn't a good scale do the same?
<< <i>........wouldn't a good scale do the same?
In theory yes, but the scale can't do it at 100 coins per minute!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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I posted this before, it works great.
The free scale works like a teeter totter, zinc stays up but copper drops. This one was made by flattening a metal brush and bending it to shape. Any strip of metal or tin can works. You can fold one end for the weight or add some solder or glue things to calibrate it until it's balanced correctly so zinc stays up but copper drops. The pivot point is a bend in the strip, the end is bent to hold the cent in a fixed position. I used a blue piece of electrical tape so it won't scratch the coins and used solder to balance this one.
Top picture is the side view.
Next is the bottom view.
Next is a zinc cent staying up.
Next is a copper cent dropping it down.
Next is the brush I used to make it, just unroll a brush and the tin makes a good metal strip and it's easy to solder on tin.
If you don't want to use metal you can use a piece of wood and a pencil for the pivot point.
Putting a coin down such a chute would hit the arm attached to the spring. If it weighed more than 2.8 to 3.0 grams (as the copper cents do), the spring gives way and the coin falls directly below into Bin 1. If it weighed less than that, the arm wouldn't give and the coin would be gravity-fed toward another chute leafing to Bin 2. Bin 1 holds all the copper cents and Bin 2 holds the Zincolns.
There are more technical challenges than the oversimplified version mentioned here, but that would certainly be the potential start of a fairly primitive device which could do this.
<< <i>I buy boxes of cents from time to time to do just that, sort out the bronze and keep it, and send the zincolns back to the bank. I wouldn't want some stupid overpriced machine spoiling the fun of finding stuff like the 1910 I found last year, or the 1916-D I found a couple of weeks ago. I have found several 2€ cent coins, a 1928 Canada Cent with GV on it, Bermuda, Bahamas etc. Just too much fun. >>
.........good point!