Copper coins

Piedfort coins

Hello ladies and gents,

Yesterday I had a chat with the pressings chap about making coins in pure copper and he said I should make a model and he'll get a price on making coins.  

pure copper coin model

Coins are made in a coin press (suprise, suprise) and they exert up to 400 tonnes of pressure. 

So I'd like to make a run of copper coins but I'd have to make a run of a lot of coins to keep the price reasonable. 

As you can see from the pictures I had a little play around with one design in Solid Works (a CAD modelling programme). I thought it would be good to have a coin that is fun to own, maybe drill a hole so it can be a keyring or something, and most coins out there are very intricate and ornate so it would be nice to see something a bit different.  
I also think it's wise to differentiate this coin from actual currency because the government may get a little annoyed with coins that are actually worth something as they print our currencies into oblivion.   
The weight I'm thinking of for a coin would be 50grammes.  The reason being is, there is a type of coin called Piedfort which means something like heavy weight.


*I read yesterday that a 2pence coin made before 1992 was actually worth 3pence because it was actually made of 97% copper.  


Gallium
You may notice that I've finally got around to selling Gallium http://buycopper.co.uk/one%20kilo%20rare%20earth%20Gallium.html
Using plastic syringes I was able to dispense exact amounts of melted gallium in a mould placed on a digital weighing scales.  The lower weight pieces are more like splats as I can't find very small silicon moulds.  
Gallium acts quite like water. When its solid it expands by 3%
As it solidifies it looks quite frost like as it crystalises.
It also melts quite like water. In that, it doesn't go soft and viscous like chocolate but it's either solid or liquid.  It has quite a high surface tension as well.  
It really is very interesting, and when it's all used up in electronics, mankind will have to mine the rubbish dumps to try and get it back again.  


That's it for now.  The 1 kilo copper bars should be ready next week and I'll put a deal up for people who want to buy ten bars at a time.  


http://buycopper.co.uk/