Copper bars being stamped tomorrow. Probably!

Sorry about the delay on the production of the Copper bars.   I can't get them made fast enough.  They tend to sell out within 2 weeks and it takes over a month to get them produced. But, I've been told they will be stamped on Monday 11th April and there will 85 bars.
Coin developments

50gramme Copper coin

50gramme Copper coin www.buycopper.co.uk

I refined the model of the 50gramme Copper coins that will be made.  They're actually going to be 52grammes. (Better slightly over than under). Yes, they will be made from commercially pure copper. .999 or above.
I don't know how long it will be before they're on sale and I don't think there'll be more than a few hundred made this year.

News
The world of metals is getting more heated.  The Telegraph says Australia is pretty much on a gold standard because it's currency is backed by it's huge wealth in gold, aluminium, and all the other ores it has.
Silver has broken through the $40/Oz barrier.  I think it will rise to $50/Oz this year, (probably more)
The Buy Copper silver coins are still a bargain for Brits but nobody is noticing.  : )
Portugal has asked for a bailout, and Spain says it's economy is doing just fine.  I don't believe it personally.
Copper is expected to get more expensive soon as global supply squeeze takes hold.  (Tell me about it.  I saw the price rise by about 25% in a month! )
I'll get a FAQ page on the site to give some rough prices for shipping to different parts of the world. I get a lot of emails about shipping costs.

My address
I had a delightfully rude email from somebody calling me a moron(amongst many other swear words) for not putting my address on the site.  There is a reason for not supplying an address.  The moment any metals trader puts their address on their site is the day before their house is ransacked and they get kidnapped and tortured.
Traders will use PO box addresses and mobile phones. All metals are kept at secure third party locations.  I removed my mobile phone number from the site because I had alarming messages left on it.
I know a jewellery maker who keeps concentrated sulphuric acid nearby in case of break ins.
In Britain only the crooks have guns and until recently possession of an illegal gun often didn't send criminals to jail.

Thats it for now.  It's a lovely day and hopefully I'll have 85 copper bars for sale this week.
http://buycopper.co.uk/

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/

Tin bullion bars in stock now!

Here is a 1 kilo bar of pure Tin.  

1 kilo ingot of pure Tin

Tin is a corrosion resistant metal that is quite soft.  If you drop it, it will dent, so when you buy they'll be wrapped in bubble wrap.

 They look very much like Silver to me.
As you probably know its used as a coating to prevent steel rusting but it is also used in solders, it's considered a non toxic element and I've just read most glass is made by floating molten glass on molten tin to get a very flat glass surface.
The price of Tin has gone up dramatically in recent years and old abandoned Tin mines in Cornwall are reopening.

There are 5 bars in stock but I can get a lot more very quickly.
The dimensions of the bars are roughly 44mm wide 33mm high and 130mm long.

I'm really impressed, a very nice metal

Gallium ingots nearly ready for sale

Today the silicon funnel arrived so I was able to pour the liquid Gallium into ingots, moulded in a silicon mould used for chocolate making.
The reason for silicon moulds is because they're very slippery and flexible so the Gallium should be able to pop out without problems.  I can also reclaim the Gallium from the funnel by putting it in a plastic bag, then into the freezer and reclaiming the metal flakes of metal when they fall away easily.

1 kilo of pure Gallium metal

silicon chocolate mould and silicon funnel

For Gallium to melt it has to be heated to higher than 29*Celsius (84.2 Fahrenheit) So I put the bottle in a  

Warming a kilo of Gallium to a liquid state.

saucepan of quite hot water, but not very hot as to affect the plastic of the bottle. 

It took about an hour to turn the metal to liquid and it became very shiny.  It seemed like water with a very high surface tension.

Taking care I poured into the mould through the silicon funnel.  It felt quite strange.  Like pouring water but much heavier. 

You can see the result below.  They look very shiny.  They've been left to cool and harden and then I'll weigh them and sell each according to the weight.  

Pure Gallium poured into Silicon mould.

Hope you like the little adventure with this very strange and extremely rare metal.  I'll see about getting a mould to make smaller ingots because I think these quite big ingots may work out to be expensive.

Hafnium may run out by 2017

Dwindling of Rare Metals 

Imperils Innovation

Supplies of indium, used in liquid-crystal displays, and of hafnium, a critical element for next-generation semiconductors, could be exhausted by 2017, according to a new report. 

By Richard Martin InformationWeek 
May 29, 2007 03:00 PM

The world may soon find itself running out of rare metals used to form key components in high-tech devices from cell phones to semiconductors to solar panels, according to a report in New Scientist magazine.

In the respected British publication's audit of "Earth's natural wealth," David Cohen writes that reserves of elements from platinum (used not only in every pollution-reducing automobile catalytic converter in use today but also in fuel cells) to indium (used in flat-screen TVs and computer monitors) and tantalum (used in mobile phones) are "being used up at an alarming rate." These metals are chemical elements -- no synthetic replacement can be developed.

MORE HERE....

Here's a little video explaining the uses of Hafnium

I'll try and get hold of some for sale.  It may be in a bar form rather than an ingot as it is an industrial metal.  

Rare Earth buyer supplier

After some feedback about the metal Gallium it seems people are interested but not sure where you would be able to sell the metal once you own it. 

So I phoned around a couple of metal specialists and I’ve found a foundry near Liverpool UK that deals in rare earths and specialist metals. 

They’ll be able to buy and supply Rare Earth and just plain rare metals.  Of course, they’ll be talking minimum orders of several kilo’s upwards, so I’ll look into a section of the shop where I can buy the small quantities of unusual metals people may hold as an investment. It'll probably as a 2% less than scrap price much like how silver is bought back by bullion traders.

I also found out Gallium isn’t part of the Rare Earth group of metals.  Gallium is plain and simply rare, as in, there is hardly any of the metal on the face of the planet or universe. 

The boss of the foundry told me more about what he’s noticed in the Rare Earth metal market.  He says, these metals have shot up in price and are now difficult to get hold of because of China’s restriction on export supply.  So I’ve heard it now, straight from the horses mouth. 

A little reminder.  Russia restricted the export of Palladium in 2000 and the price increased ten fold! 

I’ll see if I can buy metals like Indium, Tantalum and Hafnium from the foundry because that would save on import duty and shipping and of course bring you the customer the cheapest possible price. 

Copper Bars

The 1kilo copper bars are selling well and I'll have to get some more manufactured soon.  I'll look into production of 2 kilo and 1/2kilo bars as well.  

http://buycopper.co.uk/

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