Around the Globe

Over the last few months I’ve been blessed, bequeathed and been the beneficiary of coins from around the globe. These some to me from friends and family who have traveled about and come home with coins they did not spend. Hope chests, sock drawers, couch cushions and shoe boxes have rendered a great and confusing array of coins. Some of them have not a single word of English on them, so it makes their lineage difficult at best and impossible in other cases. Nonetheless I select a few based on their likelihood of folding into an attractive ring and go for it. The not knowing what they are made of can be a foolish quest. Really cheap alloys don’t always cooperate when annealing and stretching.

This week produced some surprising results. Most of all the East Indian Rupee. As far as I can tell it is made of Ferritic Stainless Steel (17% Chromium and 83% Iron). It does shine up to a nice silver or stainless steel luster.

Next on our list of surprises are several heavily patina’d Rhode Island bridge and highway tokens. Generally “Tokens” are often made of cheaper metals: copper, pewter, aluminium, brass and tin. sadly the stunning patina is lost during the annealing process. The result is an attractive gold “looking” ring. I have heard that a patina can be induced using ammonia. More to come on that front. Here you can see the patina’d coin and the first ring.

Finally we have a 1979 French 5 Franc. Nickel-clad copper-nickel. It shines up nice. Not for anyone with a copper/nickel allergy, though pretty just the same.