KOTCT
Worldwide Coins & Bank Notes => U.S. Coins => Topic started by: SirStacksALot on January 12, 2015, 06:59:24 PM
-
I picked up this irradiated dime a couple weeks ago at a coin show. I thought it was pretty interesting. The funny thing is it pops right out of the blue plastic holder, so it may not even be the dime that was irradiated. It was only $2.50 and it is a silver dime so I figure there was nothing to lose even if it was not once radioactive. Here is I a website with some more info on them:
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/medalsmementoes/dimes.htm
-
Nice pick up, Jim.
You might need a Geiger counter to confirm it. :)
-
The irradiation the coins were subjected to made them temporarily radioactive.
A silver dime is 90% silver. That silver is actually two different stable isotopes in roughly equal quantities, silver-107 and silver-109. Neutron bombardment turned a small amount of the isotope silver-109 present in the coin into radioactive silver-110 which, with a half-life of a mere 22 seconds, decays into stable cadmium-110. Likewise, some of the silver-107 forms metastable silver-108 (half-life 400 years) which eventually decays to cadmium-108. A tiny amount of the copper present would be similarly eventually transmuted to stable isotopes of nickel and zinc, with half-lives in minutes or hours.
After just a few days, the radiation would have been undetectable by a Geiger counter. You'd certainly need an extremely sensitive detector to find anything above normal background radiation from the coin today. But the transmutation of a few trillion silver atoms inside the coin into cadmium atoms would be permanent. In theory, an advanced modern analytical device ought to be able to tell the difference between a once-irradiated dime and a never-irradiated dime, just by measuring the cadmium levels, especially by measuring the ratio of cadmium-110 to other stable cadmium isotopes not related to silver transmutation reactions, such as cadmium-114.
-
I love this coin. ;D ;D Brings back a lot of memories. The lab's at ORNL are only just over 100 miles from here and I knew lots of folks who worked there. The lady who lived next to me most of my life and taught me in Sunday School was one of the Calutron Girls. My grandfather worked as a guard for the secret city. When my kids got old enough that was one of the first places I took them. Great coin. ;D ;D 8)
-
Gee, maybe carrying one of those irradiated dimes in your pocket could make you sterile. I should have known about that yrs ago (8 kids).
-
Gee, maybe carrying one of those irradiated dimes in your pocket could make you sterile. I should have known about that yrs ago (8 kids).
8!!!!! Didn't you have a TV set..... ;D
-
Wow, 8 kids.... It seems that you have a kid collection to go along with your coin collection.
-
Gee, maybe carrying one of those irradiated dimes in your pocket could make you sterile. I should have known about that yrs ago (8 kids).
I bet things are lively around you house at the holydays. ;D ;D ;D