My mother and most of my family is from Chatanooga Tenn and Rossville Georgia (right across the border)...these Irradiated Dimes are from the Oakridge Museum of Atomic Energy which is very close to where they lived...quick little write up on what these are if you havent seen one:
Back in the days of atomic ignorance, radiation and atomic energy were portrayed as harmless and fun. Those were the days when shoe stores had an x-ray machine called a Fluoroscope equipped with viewers so that you could see how the shoes fit your feet. Those were gone when it was discovered that these devices, cute as they were, were toasting little kids.
The encased irradiated dimes were another example of "radiation fun", though these are not dangerous to people, they are collectors items and are mildly dangerous to your wallet if you decide you want to collect them.
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/m...toes/dimes.htm"One of the most popular exhibits in the American Museum of Atomic Energy is a "dime irradiator." To date, more than 250,000 dimes have been irradiated, encased in plastic and returned to their owners as souvenirs. The irradiator works as follows: A mixture of radioactive antimony and beryllium is enclosed in a lead container. Gamma rays from the antimony are absorbed by the beryllium atoms and a neutron is expelled by the beryllium atom in the process.
These neutrons, having no electrical charge, penetrate silver atoms in the dime. Instead of remaining normal silver-109, they become radioactive silver-110. After irradiation, the dime is dropped out through a slot in the lead container and rests momentarily before a Geiger tube so that its radioactivity may be demonstrated. It is then encased in the souvenir container. Radioactive silver, with a half-life of 22 seconds, decays rapidly to cadmium-110 (In 22 seconds, half of the radioactivity in each dime is gone, in another 22 seconds half the remainder goes, and so on until all the silver-110 has become cadmium). Only an exceedingly minute fraction of the silver atoms have been made radioactive."
my grandfather died early of cancer...hmmmm...I will post more tomorrow...this thread will help me get all the info organized into one post for each coin or medal as compared to the other thread I used to gather info which is rather long with info in multiple posts.
Great write up on it thanks Drusus 
I like the defeat of Napolion medal that is so Tutonic 
Aaaah! 
I like them ALL!
Wonderful