I have NEVER seen anything like this until I came across this auction page:

German Gold Coins Hoard

Yes, there is a hoard of gold German coins, but there are two interesting gold coins there.


How often do you see shattered coins?! I mean, if coins are metallic, I would assume that they would bend under most normal circumstances unless they have been lying around in some Soviet freezing temperature and a hammer fell on them by accident...

So when are you buying the lot?

I imagine that a coin could be shattered by immersing it in liquid nitrogen for a bit and then dropping it on the floor or hitting it with a hammer.

Never seen anything like it

that is strange indeed!

Strange. If isn't a ceramic coin, the liquid Nitrogen is the only answer...

I wonder...

If the alloy is too pure could that happen?

Failing that the only thing i can think of that would cause such a thing would be crystallisation of the metal. With ancient coins i've come across this; Cue to Reid again...

But with such modern coins is it possible?

http://brokencc.com/Brokenccpics.php

This type of break is not metal fatigue nor is it plastic deformation
It looks like intergranular corrosion which you get at extremes of low temperature
or pressure or acid treatment
Very strange

When I was in high school (a very long time ago) the teacher shatter a grape and a rose by immersing the in liquid nitrogen first. The sounded like glass when they broke and then when they defrosted, they were back to normal. So I imagine that metal will have the same results.

Odd.

Looks as though Anthony's lucked into a good buy from some European bullion dealer. I'd like to get that particular group of gold coins.

Don't we all? That'd be pretty cool.

Yeah, unfortunately I'd have to sell some land to come up with the cash, though. That ain't gonna happen this year. ;-)

On weekends, I am a presenter at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum. I do a liquid nitrogen show. Shattering coins is part of that. I freeze Lincoln cents and hit them with a hammer.

I also shatter mums, but I do not like that. I talked my way out of it last time by telling the audience that when I was a kid, scientists would come do this demonstration and shatter a frog. Wasting a flower is almost as bad. Flowers should be given to a pretty girl. So, one guy in back pipes up: "You never gave a frog to a pretty girl?"

When I do this show again, I think I will expand the coinage a bit and see what breaks how.

A few Gothic florins might go down well for that.

The most cruel demo I had was at univ
Prof demo of surface tention
You put soap in a tub of water
Then put a duck in
The duck will sink , no surface tention to float it

Doctor! I feel a pulse in this thread!

At the show yesterday, I saw a boken Morgan. One part was in one slab and the other part was in a second slab like in your picture but it was more like a 70/30 split and was on the side.

In Liquid Nitrogen I could see a zincoln cent shattering but I would be a bit surprised if a bronze one did. I also would not expect a silver or gold coin to shatter either. (I wonder if clad coins might seperate layers due to shear tensions setup by different rates of contraction.?)

Bang takes out quarter and pounds on it with hammer on concrete step .....the concrete cracked but not the coin. My dad was pretty mad and a quarter in those days was a weeks allowance. Bang takes a quarter and sticks it half way into vice on bench bolted to floor...... took a sharp wack at it with a hammer and woweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It broke in half. I did this when I was a kid. Bang takes a dollar bill and wraps it around a minie ball ....stuffs it in a 50 calliber blackpowder rifle. Found pieces of it all over firing range.