Penny's sealed in lead..?? (pic heavy!)

007tallguy · May 5, 2012

first i'll quickly say i found some little silver this afternoon, a 1965 dime to add to the "pile". found in the same area as my 1957 quarter last weekend.

ok, on to my most unusual find from today:
i found what i thought at first was several coins fused or melted together and at about 8-9 inches deep in a field behind 2 very old houses.
after i cleaned the dirt off, i realized from the color and the weight that it was a blob of lead. and strangely, there was what looked to be a "coin pattern" on one side of this blob.
cleaned it up a bit more when i got home and upon close examination, the pattern is that of a large cent, but the pattern is reversed. :shock:

i'm thinking what are the possibilities here..... someone was bored and impressed a coin on some hot lead? OR: did they have some l/c's sealed in this lead for some reason? has anyone out there ever heard of that being done? maybe as a way of hiding them or as part of a cache?

a large cent weighs 5.5 grams and this "blob" weighs in at 33.5 grams.
it's thick enough to possibly contain 3 more l/c's, if indeed there are any in there. there doesn't appear to be the edges of any cents visible around the outside edge of this lead, but it almost looks like there could be 2 or 3 of them stacked there in a slightly crookedly.

so.... who all would fire up the blow torch and check it out? as a blob of lead, it's not worth anything. it does have that reversed impression of a Canadian large cent, and from the female figure on it (Queen Victoria), that penny would have had a date range from 1879 to 1901.

any thoughts? :?:

could it be as simple as they didn't have any paper coin rollers left? :laughing:

Pete

Bonesquat · May 5, 2012

Put it on ebay. Might go sky high.

007tallguy · May 5, 2012

Bonesquat said:
Put it on ebay. Might go sky high.

not a bad idea, but.... i would really hate to think there could easily be gold coins instead of penny's sealed in that lead. that's how my luck works.

Yeki · May 5, 2012

That's a cool find. I'm anxious to see if anyone knows anything about it.

Norgrin · May 6, 2012

To Me does not look like a coin incased in lead.
It looks more like the impression of a coin pressed into the lead.
They raised parts on a coin seem to be the low parts in the lead.
And the face is facing the wrong direction for a "Queen Victoria" coin.

It could be a impression of the 1858 Queen Victoria Canada Penny

007tallguy · May 6, 2012

Norgrin said:
To Me does not look like a coin incased in lead.
It looks more like the impression of a coin pressed into the lead.
They raised parts on a coin seem to be the low parts in the lead.
And the face is facing the wrong direction for a "Queen Victoria" coin.

It could be a impression of the 1858 Queen Victoria Canada Penny

ummm..... yes, you are correct. isn't my text showing in my post? :?:

Bonesquat · May 6, 2012

So it's an old wax seal thing? Crudely made?

itsaring! · May 6, 2012

That's too cool to melt! Never seen anything like it.Someone trying to make a fake coin mold maybe back then?Form for a real strike plate? I'd wait to melt it until someone has a good guess its worthless.I'd love that one!

007tallguy · May 6, 2012

Bonesquat said:
So it's an old wax seal thing? Crudely made?

itsaring! said:
That's too cool to melt! Never seen anything like it.Someone trying to make a fake coin mold maybe back then?Form for a real strike plate? I'd wait to melt it until someone has a good guess its worthless.I'd love that one!

i really don't know for sure. it would make a cool wax seal but the detail wouldn't be very sharp. or maybe the years of corrosion took it's toll. and i don't see any attachment points from it being mounted on anything although it could have been just been pressed by hand.

and a coin mold out of lead? it wouldn't last very long unless they were making fake coins out of silly putty. :laughing:

it's hard to say what it was. someone could have just been playing around with some melted lead and a penny. or they might have stuck a bunch of penny's together for whatever reason, maybe as a way of hiding them (?) and that imprint is from where the last penny had been removed and it's image is still there.
i haven't messed with it yet, but i do think it's possible there may be be a couple more penny's within that lead. it's big enough across and thick enough to hold 2 or 3 more but.......... :?:

of course, a person would have an almost impossible job getting all of the lead removed from the coins. :no:

at least they wouldn't look like "dug" coins. :laughing:

Dark Chameleon · May 6, 2012

There is a way to find out but it would require some work....you could make a mould of the lead and then pour lead into the mould so you made an exact copy of your item..then weight it and see if its lighter, if your origonal item is less weight then theres something in it that isnt lead, or if its heavier then something in there is heavier then lead and that would be gold...other thing is you can find out the volume of lead to weight and then measure it in water with a fine tube to find out the volume to lead content, see if its lighter then solid lead for its size

Dowsing · May 6, 2012

Dark Chameleon said:
There is a way to find out but it would require some work....you could make a mould of the lead and then pour lead into the mould so you made an exact copy of your item..then weight it and see if its lighter, if your origonal item is less weight then theres something in it that isnt lead, or if its heavier then something in there is heavier then lead and that would be gold...other thing is you can find out the volume of lead to weight and then measure it in water with a fine tube to find out the volume to lead content, see if its lighter then solid lead for its size

That is a brilliant idea.

Dark Chameleon · May 6, 2012

Dowsing said:
That is a brilliant idea.

I try...and i have been kind of thinking about that for the scap gold i tend to buy right now when i dont trust the testing acids or weight

007tallguy · May 6, 2012

Dark Chameleon said:
I try...and i have been kind of thinking about that for the scap gold i tend to buy right now when i dont trust the testing acids or weight

i'll thank you as well DC. :yes:

i've got lots of pellets kicking around so i know i get the weight right. now i just need a small graduated container...... :roll:

Penny's sealed in lead..?? (pic heavy!)

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