MELTING SILVER COINS Casting ETC WITH PICS

[jewelerdave]

Ok, I have had a few people begging me to show pics of melting coins and had a lot of questions. So I hope this helps.

I am going to show how casting is done with the silver,

First pics are metals and alloys, Silver and gold and palladium and the like.

The Coins in the melting crucible are what is going to be melted. Fine, 90% and old sprue and some scrap sheet sterling. The amount is mixed to make .925+ silver. However it needs to be uniform and "cleaned"

Next pic is the coins being melted into one uniform alloy and then when all melted.

next Is all melted.

now it needs to be cleaned and oxide removed so some flux is added and it is poured into water. the blue is a shop towel. It does not burn the paper towel as a jacket of steam is created over the metal keeping it from touching the paper. Its anaerobic so it keeps the silver clean as it cools. It boils the water a bit but as soon as the steam stops its safe to pick up.

now it is remelted to cast into rings via lost wax into a mold.
The mold is broken away and the rings are on a sprue tree, its black from oxidizing but this is removed with acid, then the rings are cut and finished and polished and sent out for sale.

the last pics are shavings and scrap dust that is saved to be refined and made into pure metal again, I will do a post on refining at a later date.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

David

 

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[Immy]

Interesting stuff, but as a coin collector it pains me to see 90% Washingtons being melted before my eyes! Poor little guys... Thanks for the pics anyway!

 

[tw656]

I agree, I coundnt do it.

 

[Rosco Bookbinder]

And it's legal I thought they passed a law that in circulation coins can't be melted. I may be wrong and probably am........

 

[cyberdan]

Thanks Dave, that brings back some memories. I have not been able to do that in many years. Still have a lot of my hand tools and scrap silver packed away somewhere.

Is that a lathe or endmill in some of your pictures? Never used one for finishing, just a lot of files and a buffing wheel.

Been to your web site, nice products.

 

[jewelerdave]

Well they are not circulated much anymore, coin silver used to be a common alloy. I usually only melt 64s and standing liberties and other coins that you cant see the date on because whats the point if its just a slug of 90%
And they made over 1.25 billion 1964 silver quarters, 8 times what they made in 63
for halves it was nearly a half million, also 8 times the normal issue form before.
For dimes in 64 it was 2.2 billion, 5 to 6 times the normal issue.
so anything 64 is quite common, and circulated quite noncollectable.
Over all even by todays standards if it was all collected and split up that would be $3 to $4 face for every one in the US.

Someones gotta make em rare right?

Even if I melted down $2 to $3 face every day for the rest of my life I could only melt down about $55,000 face, not even enough to make a dent in the coin population. even if it was half dollars I still could not melt more than %2.2 of them for just halves. It would take me a few hundred years to make them rare.

however, the fact is I melt maybe $1 to $3 face value per week if that. Along with gold of various sources. If the coins bother you I wont show pics of me recycling gold rings from the 1860's and on that are worn out. No one wants them, no one collects them. And they have no value other than the metal scrap. Just the way it is. The same is done with 150 year old rail road rails too.

As the worlds resources grow tighter and the population grows the strain for materials does and will outweigh the collectible value as it has done many times in the past and will do so in the future.


Hi Cyberdan, yes its a small watch makers lathe, its great for turning rings I do. we still do a lot of file work and grinding and polishing. Not much has changed in jewlery in the last hundred years but there are some new tools that are amazing, Laser welders, CAD/CAM etc.

 

[Ghondi]

Awesome.
How much does melting coins save you per ring?*If you've figured it out*
I'd love to get into the ring/jewelery making business...

 

[jewelerdave]

Well Ghondi...
Depends, Figure most of the rings I make are 1/3 oz of silver about, or when buying silver grain about $5 each to make for metals give or take a dollar. There are other expenses too but the rings but they retail for about $20 for what I offer in sterling. I have to make a profit as it takes an hour of polishing to make them sale ready

figure that in one 90% coin it has just over 1/3 oz of silver. And at todays market is worth about $4.50 now if I get that half via coin roll hunting it cost me a whopping 50 cents and not 4.50 So it adds about 4 bucks into the margin, not a lot but it adds up.

But I have to say, there is nothing magical about jewelry manufacturing. its just that, manufacturing. It requires skill, thousands of dollars in tools and a market out let for what is made and or ordered and takes years to pay back, like any other profession., its a business like anything else that just happens to use and consume preciouses metals. I just like the CRH as coins are a hobby of mine and it allows me to add to my stash and collection and my margins but a little bit. I figure by the time I die I will have a true treasure trove of goods that I intend to bury somewhere and leave a map with clues. That way only the smartest and most determined of my heirs will be able to find and get what they deserve A very nice stash of rare coins, silver and gold bars, diamonds and other valuable things. And yes I am going to make it very hard to get...months if not years will be required in order to recover it.

 

[TxTim]

I've really enjoyed this thread - super interesting stuff.
Can't wait for the refining post.

 

[tenjos]

great post keep em coming!