Electro plate prints.

[Feign]

Pure copper pennies are getting harder to find, yes. I think current pennies are made with a copper-nickel alloy but it still works fine as an anode. Often you'll find pennies in circulation that look like they've been recovered from an ancient shipwreck, but are only a few years old by their mint date. This was probably the cause.

Another trick is plumbing and home care stores have a product called ZEP Root Kill, which is pure Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate. Other septic tank root killing treatments are also very likely to have high concentrations of copper sulfate. I learned about it from this Youtube video, but apparently it's a fairly well-established trick with folks who make their own ammo.

[Mjolinor]

UK has always used alloy, it was bronze but is now copper plated steel.

The best stuff to use is either copper pipe or copper wire.

[old man emu]

Before Australia went decimal in 1966, our "coppers" were the penny and half-penny (ha'penny). The penny was 30.8mm in diameter and weighed 9.45g. They were made of bronze (97% Cu, 2.5% Zn and 0.5% Sn). They had the Monarch's head on one side and on the reverse was a kangaroo (heads and tails).



These coins were a good size for tossing in gambling games. The traditional game of Two-up uses these coins. They are placed on a short, narrow, wooden boards called a "kip" before being spun into the air by a flick of the wrist. The use of the kip prevents any foul play by the "spinner".

After decimalization in 1966, the penny was replaced by the one cent coin, half the size of a penny (17.65mm in diameter) and 2.6g of the same bronze alloy.


The animal is a Feathertail Glider (Acrobates pygmaeius) .The obverse side depicted the head of the Queen of Australia. These, along with the two cent coins of similar material have been withdrawn as, with inflation, they have become valueless. (Prices are still given up to 99 cents eg $1.99, but non-electronic transactions are rounded to the nearest five cents. If I bought a $1.99 item and tendered a $2 coin, I would get no change. However, if I used my Visa card, it would show up as a $1.99 transaction.

Obviously the one and two cent coins were useless for Two-up. I carry two pennies in my wallet which were minted in the year of my birth. That way, I'm never penniless, and always prepared for a game of Swy (Two-up). I also carry a US Nickel, but I suppose I should be carrying a dime.

QUESTION:
If bronze is an alloy, does the copper come out of it during electrolysis?

Old Man Emu

[Mjolinor]

Hmm, that brings back memories. We used to lust over Aus pennies. The shops here used to take them because they were the same as ours but had a kangaroo on the back. I suppose they weren't really legal tender but no one seemed to really bother. I think I have some somewhere in the back of a cupboard.

Yes teh copper will dissolve, as will the tin. You are better off using a bit of pipe or wire.

[LambdaFF]

I looked into it a few months ago. For the initial bath, sulfuric acid and copper powder won't cost you more than 20€ for a few liters. Normally with a plumbing tube for sacrificial material you shouldn't need to regenerate the bath.