*Official December 2010 Half Dollars and Other Coins

[AGCoinHunter]

$10 in CWH... 1 - 40%

[knibloe]

Halves:

Box 1- 12-40%
Box 2 Skunk
Box 3 Skunk
Box 4 1-40%

$30 in CWR 20-40%

[hirbonzig]

One box of halves--skunked on silver, found a 2003-D NIFC

One box of nickels--skunked on silver

[BamaJoe]

Half Box #151

1 1967

Ok, I have a question for you experts. What is that nasty green stuff that grows on the coins? This box was just filthy and covered in the green crap. I only spotted the one I found because I saw a glimmer of silver where the coin had been nicked on the side. Still had to use the rim of another coin to scrap the grunge off of it enough to see the year.

Should be mostly Copper (II) Chloride. It is a green salt that also absorbs water; probably your box had been exposed to excessive humidity for an extended period if the salt was particularly gunky and nasty.

Apparently Nickel (II) Chloride is yellow when anhydrous and becomes green when hydrated, although it mostly takes the form of the hexahydrate, NiCl2 * 6 H20. Because this is a rather large amount of water, I find it more likely that you are dealing with Copper (II) Chloride. Take care however, as nickel salts are apparently carcinogenic. I can tell you however, that I have encountered small quantities of anhydrous Nickel (II) Chloride, as I have seen the yellow gunk before, but it is less common.

However, bear in mind that Nickel is more readily oxidized than Copper, so this increases the chances that the green goop is in fact a nickel salt, and not a copper salt. Can you send us a picture of these coins, as I am now quite curious to see them? There is a way to test for whether the green stuff is in fact copper or nickel. Basically this requires putting the green gunk in a solution of hydrochloric acid and then adding a metal that is more reactive than copper, but less reactive than nickel, with tin being a good choice here. If the tin reacts, than the copper will come out of solution as the red metal and this will be obvious. If the tin does not react, then you have nickel. It may be useful to know, as nickel salts are dangerous to human health, far more so than copper salts.

I'm going to go a bit further here and speculate that the green crud is in fact a copper salt and not a nickel salt. The reason for this is because I recall a particular 40% coin which had quite an accumulation of green salt stuff. Obviously, that coin contains no nickel and plenty of copper. So it's probably Copper II Chloride for this reason.

Thanks for the chemistry lesson Quagmire. I've already dumped the rejects, but here's a scan of the sole keeper that I found. About 75% of the coins in the box had the green junk on them to some degree or another.

[DirtyFingers]

$500 halves

1 - 1968 P
1 - NIFC 2010 P
1 - NIFC 2010 D

DF

[BamaJoe]

Half Box #155 was a keeper.

5 1966
7 1967
2 1968D
1 1969D

1 1957 Ben

1 1964 JFK

[Heartkill]

December continues to be good to me.

$305 CWR dimes - '49, '54, 2 '64D's

[BamaJoe]

Half Box #156

1 1968D
2 1969D

[Quagmire]

Based on your scan BamaJoe, I concluded that your box in fact was exposed to a lot of humidity, if not outright dropped in water and then dried. Take note of the blackish crud that is also on the coin, most likely Silver (I) Oxide; this fact would seem to confirm that the coins were exposed to some oxidizing agent, in good quantity.

[rainsonme]

Mr. Quagmire, are the carcinogenic nickle salts absorbed through the skin, or just carcinogenic when ingested?

[BamaJoe]

Based on your scan BamaJoe, I concluded that your box in fact was exposed to a lot of humidity, if not outright dropped in water and then dried. Take note of the blackish crud that is also on the coin, most likely Silver (I) Oxide; this fact would seem to confirm that the coins were exposed to some oxidizing agent, in good quantity.

Interesting - I guess somebody left the water running in the storage vault.

Half Box #157

8 1966
3 1967

1 1963 Ben

Getting more 66's than normal lately.

[cwgii]

1,000$ nickels 11-11--21 4 wars
1,0000 11-23--12-3 7 wars

[AGCoinHunter]

$2k (4X $500 half boxes) yeilded....


Nothing.

[uthminsta]

...Apparently Nickel (II) Chloride is yellow when anhydrous and becomes green when hydrated, although it mostly takes the form of the hexahydrate, NiCl2 * 6 H20...

I always expect Quagmire's posts to be something like "Alllllriiiight!" or "Giggity." Then he drops some science on us. Literally. Well, alllllriiiight.

[beauanderos]

$2k (4X $500 half boxes) yeilded....


Nothing.

I feel your pain. Worst set of boxes I've had in a long time.

Five boxes were skunks. The other one yielded one 64, 3 40's.

[slickeast]

2 Bags

Bag 1 - 15 40%

Bag 2 - 14 40% , 1 90%

[uthminsta]

I'm not much of a sorter. I get the occasional $10 in cents to look through with my daughters, but I'm definitely not the type of sorter many people on this site are. I've been reading these posts in the last few weeks, and looking at the highlights from about 2 million dollars worth of halves sorted this year. Wow. Some astronomical stuff has been discovered! That got me thinking I'd sure like to find me something...

Today's my day off. So this afternoon, while the family was doing some errands, I said hey I wanna pull into this bank here and see if I can get some of the new Lincoln dollars, and maybe see if they've got some halves I could buy.

They had $70 worth, and the lady said, "I'll be so glad to get rid of them. There was a guy who used to come in here and buy a lot, but he hasn't been in for quite some time. I've had these for a long time! Do you REALLY want ALL $70? Oh, good gracious, thank you!"

Haha... she should have opened them.

Roll one... four 40%ers.
Roll two... five 40%ers.
Roll three... five 40%ers.
Roll four... four 40%ers.
Roll five... two 40%ers.
Roll six... three 40%ers and a 90% Kennedy.
Those six were customer wrapped. The seventh roll was Brinks wrapped, and was a skunk.

So you better believe I went to every other bank I could think of, in my small town. One had none. The next one's lobby was closed and for some reason the drive through didn't have a window on the bank, just the ones with the "tubes." The next had none. The next had $80 (skunk, all Brinks rolls). The next had none. The next one was closed.

So now I have the fever, and my town doesn't have any halves!

All told, in $150 searched, I found 23 40% halves and one 90%:
1964x1
1965x3
1966x2
1967x12
1968x4
1969x2

[BamaJoe]

Uthminsta - it is addictive isn't it. You get the first thrill when you find something and get a second when remember that you got it for face value. As soon as I finish one box I start wondering what might be in the next unopened one sitting there softly calling my name.

Yep, those double thrills are great. Reminds me of two cute Thai sisters I ran across in Bangkok and spent some time with many years ago, but that's another story.

[BamaJoe]

Half Box #158

2 1964 JFK
1 1943 Walker

[knibloe]

$20 in CWR

1-1964
1-40%

One silver quarter (1964) from the tellers tray.

[BamaJoe]

Half Box #159

2 1967

3 1964 JFK
1 1954 Ben
1 1943 Walker


Half Box #160

Skunk

A great streak while it lasted.

[AGCoinHunter]

$100 box of nickels

3 wars

[PreservingThePast]

Report on nickels searched:

$40.00 -- 20 CWRs

V nickel - none
Buffalo - none
War Nickel - none
Proofs - none
Canadian pre-1982 - none
2009 - none
Other found - one -- 1/1951

Kept for nickel album - none


Other stats: Three rolls over 5 cents each roll, Two rolls shorted 5 cents each roll


Overage/shortage total: Over 5 cents

Enjoy your coin searches, everyone.

[gravybro]

This week's 4 Brinks dime boxes contained only 1 silver dime . . . '63.

[Dumpster Diver]

Got a '51 dime in change when I bought some 10k earrings at a thrift shop for $2.

Life is sweet like that.