Just Some Nickels

Yesterday was my wife's birthday and so I searched just one box of nickels after we got back from the Chinese restaurant. It produced three Canadians.

I also performed a science experiment. I read about cleaning coins using electrolysis and I decided to try it out. I took an old 12 volt adapter I had, split and stripped the ends, and connected them to two alligator clips. Then I attached one clip to a stainless steel fork and the other to a dirty silver half (just a spare for testing). I put both of these in a glass jar with one hefty spoonful of salt and some lemon juice. I turned the unit on. Immediately the water around the coin started to bubble, like soda. After a minute the water turned brownish yellow and then after three minutes it was brown on top and bluish below. I took the coin out. It was blackened, but it was such that I could wipe it off. Now the coin is extra clean, almost too clean to be honest. I tried it with a penny too, but it did some funky things to the copper. It was fun, but I don't think I'll use it to clean anymore coins.

Here's a picture of our baby's room by request of TP.



Found: 2 pennies (at Burger King)