Educational

Author Topic: What have you done today? (Pt 2)  (Read 157253 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Minister Of Silly Walks

  • Elder
  • Dedicated Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 4035
  • Karma: 421
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9180 on: August 23, 2018, 07:17:15 AM »
When my father died about 20 years ago my brother moved into his house for a while with his Thai girlfriend (the house was in a nice area, near the beach).

My brother didn't want to clean out my father's wardrobe so he told his girlfriend that if she cleaned it out she could keep any money that she found.

So while she was cleaning it out she found a rather heavy coin in a little plastic envelope. She asked my brother what it was and if she could keep it. He told her "no, that one doesn't count".

It was an Australian $200 gold coin which was minted in the early 80s in such large numbers that it would never have any rarity value. At that stage the gold price was still fairly low so my brother simply turned it in at a bank for its face value of $200.

These days those coins are worth $500+ just for the gold. Unfortunately they don't turn up at the bottom of people's drawers too often any more.
“When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” Frederick Douglass

Offline DirtDawg

  • Insensitive Oaf and Earthworm Whisperer
  • Elder
  • Almighty Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 31541
  • Karma: 2540
  • Gender: Male
  • Last rays of the last days
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9181 on: August 23, 2018, 11:07:52 PM »

You might want to double check that. A coin with a face of two hundred dollars might be worth considerably more than that with today's gold spot hovering over $1600 AUD.
Jimi Hendrix: When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. 

Ghandi: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The end result of life's daily pain and suffering, trials and failures, tears and laughter, readings and listenings is an accumulation of wisdom in its purest form.

Offline Minister Of Silly Walks

  • Elder
  • Dedicated Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 4035
  • Karma: 421
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9182 on: August 23, 2018, 11:15:10 PM »
I googled the current price, it is about $500. When the coins were originally issued they had a lot less than $200 worth of gold in them - that was why for years they were only worth $200 and not a cent more.

My wife's solid gold bracelet is worth a lot more. She has to paint it with nail polish when she travels anywhere even slightly dodgy, as she can't take it off any more. I think I paid US$500 for it about 13 years ago.
“When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” Frederick Douglass

Offline Tequila

  • Elder
  • Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 1982
  • Karma: 52
  • Gender: Male
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9183 on: August 23, 2018, 11:17:13 PM »
My wife's solid gold bracelet is worth a lot more. She has to paint it with nail polish when she travels anywhere even slightly dodgy, as she can't take it off any more. I think I paid US$500 for it about 13 years ago.

Wouldn't that damage the bracelet a bit?

Offline DirtDawg

  • Insensitive Oaf and Earthworm Whisperer
  • Elder
  • Almighty Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 31541
  • Karma: 2540
  • Gender: Male
  • Last rays of the last days
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9184 on: August 23, 2018, 11:47:13 PM »
My wife's solid gold bracelet is worth a lot more. She has to paint it with nail polish when she travels anywhere even slightly dodgy, as she can't take it off any more. I think I paid US$500 for it about 13 years ago.

Wouldn't that damage the bracelet a bit?

NO, gold is practically inert and a coating will not hurt it. She is doing that painty bit to keep from having her arm hacked off.
Jimi Hendrix: When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. 

Ghandi: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The end result of life's daily pain and suffering, trials and failures, tears and laughter, readings and listenings is an accumulation of wisdom in its purest form.

Offline DirtDawg

  • Insensitive Oaf and Earthworm Whisperer
  • Elder
  • Almighty Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 31541
  • Karma: 2540
  • Gender: Male
  • Last rays of the last days
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9185 on: August 23, 2018, 11:50:24 PM »
I googled the current price, it is about $500. When the coins were originally issued they had a lot less than $200 worth of gold in them - that was why for years they were only worth $200 and not a cent more.

My wife's solid gold bracelet is worth a lot more. She has to paint it with nail polish when she travels anywhere even slightly dodgy, as she can't take it off any more. I think I paid US$500 for it about 13 years ago.

I see, so it has about one third of an ounce of gold, not a full ounce. Still worth watching for gold to peak before selling it.
Good luck!
Jimi Hendrix: When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. 

Ghandi: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

The end result of life's daily pain and suffering, trials and failures, tears and laughter, readings and listenings is an accumulation of wisdom in its purest form.

Offline Minister Of Silly Walks

  • Elder
  • Dedicated Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 4035
  • Karma: 421
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9186 on: August 24, 2018, 02:10:08 AM »
I googled the current price, it is about $500. When the coins were originally issued they had a lot less than $200 worth of gold in them - that was why for years they were only worth $200 and not a cent more.

My wife's solid gold bracelet is worth a lot more. She has to paint it with nail polish when she travels anywhere even slightly dodgy, as she can't take it off any more. I think I paid US$500 for it about 13 years ago.

I see, so it has about one third of an ounce of gold, not a full ounce. Still worth watching for gold to peak before selling it.
Good luck!

No, my brother sold it years ago.

I had a couple as well that I sold in my late teens when I had no money.

No regrets.
“When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” Frederick Douglass

Offline Tequila

  • Elder
  • Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 1982
  • Karma: 52
  • Gender: Male
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9187 on: August 24, 2018, 03:06:18 AM »
NO, gold is practically inert and a coating will not hurt it. She is doing that painty bit to keep from having her arm hacked off.

Can't be that bad where they live.

Offline Minister Of Silly Walks

  • Elder
  • Dedicated Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 4035
  • Karma: 421
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9188 on: August 26, 2018, 01:15:51 AM »
NO, gold is practically inert and a coating will not hurt it. She is doing that painty bit to keep from having her arm hacked off.

Can't be that bad where they live.

Very low crime rate where I live. She paints it when she goes overseas to places where that gold bracelet is worth a year's salary or more for a lot of people. And DirtDawg is correct, if she goes flaunting it in the street in some places she's gonna end up being called "Lefty".
“When men oppress their fellow men, the oppressor ever finds, in the character of the oppressed, a full justification for his oppression.” Frederick Douglass

Offline Parts

  • The Mad
  • Caretaker Admin
  • Almighty Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 37394
  • Karma: 3056
  • Gender: Female
  • Who are you?
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9189 on: August 26, 2018, 04:07:12 PM »
Helped a friend clean out his attic, so much stuff, dust and spiders :zombiefuck:  There must have been more than twenty boxes of old taxes and paper work but I also found a box of old comics from the 40s and 50s and ten rolls of silver quarters which comes out to just over $1000 worth of silver :o

A little over value there, but silver is silver!  Mention to your friend that silver spot price has gone down quite a bit this month. Sit on them for a while and watch spot to peak before selling them for silver content.

... or hell, just take the money and run.
You get about ten times face value on the 64 and before silver coins spot is a little higher https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/coin-melt-values.aspx.  I check the spot every time before I go to the flea market to make sure I don't under value any of the silver things I have
"Eat it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do or do without." 

'People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.'
George Bernard Shaw

Offline Parts

  • The Mad
  • Caretaker Admin
  • Almighty Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 37394
  • Karma: 3056
  • Gender: Female
  • Who are you?
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9190 on: August 26, 2018, 04:08:34 PM »
Went back and loaded the stuff my friend was keeping in a Pod and picked up some more stuff.
"Eat it up.  Wear it out.  Make it do or do without." 

'People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.'
George Bernard Shaw

Offline rock hound

  • Elder
  • Obsessive Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 6293
  • Karma: 365
  • Gender: Male
  • The Lurker at the Threshold.
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9191 on: August 26, 2018, 04:33:13 PM »
Just got back from an over night trip to see a 250th anniversary celebration of a town that I had many pleasant memories of.  Hell was leavened by those memories.
"Some books are to be tasted.  Others to be swallowed.  And some few to be chewed and digested."  --Sir Francis Bacon

"Civilization exists by geologic consent.  Subject to change without notice."  --Will Durant

Offline Charlotte Quin

  • Abbess from the Abyss
  • Elder
  • Obsessive Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 5140
  • Karma: 421
  • Gender: Female
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9192 on: September 08, 2018, 09:21:02 AM »
I DID test run the plastidipping today. The rear badge turned out not so good as maybe I sprayed too much on, but I went ahead and did the trim on one door. Yes now my doors are mismatched :laugh:.

My god it's arduous masking everything off though! It seemed to take about 90 mins alone! None the less I masked off another door to do in the morning.

Offline Lestat

  • Pharmaceutical dustbin of the autie elite
  • Elder
  • Obsessive Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 8965
  • Karma: 451
  • Gender: Male
  • Homo stercore veteris, heterodiem
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9193 on: September 08, 2018, 09:31:44 AM »
Sanding and drilling holes in a bunch of pieces of copper pipe. Had to clean them up as the copper tubing had at one point been stored over a pot of mercury salts and slops from an amalgam reduction, failed miserably at it, but I think the volatility of the mercuric chloride used must have allowed it to vaporize over time and plate out metallic mercury on the copper.

Making some electrodes, so I can connect them up to a power supply (car battery charger) and electrolyze them in a hot beaker of 98% sulfuric acid to produce some copper (II) sulfate. I need some copper (II) chloride, and unfortunately I only have a few hundred mg left.  So I will need to make it via a  salt metathesis reaction.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2018, 09:34:39 AM by Lestat »
Beyond the pale. Way, way beyond the pale.

Requiescat in pacem, Wolfish, beloved of Pyraxis.

Offline Lestat

  • Pharmaceutical dustbin of the autie elite
  • Elder
  • Obsessive Postwhore
  • *****
  • Posts: 8965
  • Karma: 451
  • Gender: Male
  • Homo stercore veteris, heterodiem
Re: What have you done today? (Pt 2)
« Reply #9194 on: September 08, 2018, 10:43:04 AM »
Well that solves that problem. I only have a few hundred mg of CuCl2, but someone just posted a writeup for doing it on a 10mmol scale, and it seems I only need 260mg of the cupric chloride. The electrolysis of copper metal in concentrated (98%) sulfuric acid is going miserably, the car battery charger just isn't providing enough voltage and current to form CuSO4 in useful quantities  by the end of today.

But I'll run it in a microscale setup, maybe increase it to 20mmol, depending how much CuCl2 I have left.
Beyond the pale. Way, way beyond the pale.

Requiescat in pacem, Wolfish, beloved of Pyraxis.