How would someone destroy the average American coin?

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Fiender

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So, this is a really specific situation: I'm outlining a new story and part of the plot involves the main character needing to destroy a coin that has been imbued with magic (to release that magic). Cutting, breaking, or warping the coin isn't enough; its physical state needs to change, i.e. melt.

Thing is, metal doesn't exactly melt on the average summer day. Where could someone go/what could someone do to destroy the average American coin? A quarter, specifically. The melting point according to google is 2647 degrees Fahrenheit. Would my character need to procure specific equipment, like a welding torch, to do this, or could they go to a friend who works *somewhere convenient* to get it done? Are there any commonly-found furnaces or household equipment that can reach that temperature?

(Hoping this doesn't get me added on a watch list or anything :p)
 
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ChaseJxyz

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How destroyed are we talking? Those penny-squisher machines exist at truck stops all over the country; I think it would be really funny and interesting that that is the solution for such a problem.

Furnaces/ironworks are pretty common. There's quite a few here in the San Francisco Bay Area that I could get to really easily, though getting inside to toss a coin into a vat of molten metal might be tricky. There are also plenty of people who do glass blowing or blacksmithing for fun or profit and there's even maker spaces that you can go to learn these crafts or to "Rent out" and use the equipment.
 

Fiender

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How destroyed are we talking? Those penny-squisher machines exist at truck stops all over the country; I think it would be really funny and interesting that that is the solution for such a problem.

Furnaces/ironworks are pretty common. There's quite a few here in the San Francisco Bay Area that I could get to really easily, though getting inside to toss a coin into a vat of molten metal might be tricky. There are also plenty of people who do glass blowing or blacksmithing for fun or profit and there's even maker spaces that you can go to learn these crafts or to "Rent out" and use the equipment.

Its physical state would have to change, so squashing it wouldn't be enough unfortunately (at least, without me re-considering how the magic works). And yeah, finding the equipment or knowing where to find it is one thing, but getting access long enough to do something as seemingly-frivolous/stupid as destroying a piece of American currency... is another thing. :tongue
 

InkFinger

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simplest answer, depending on where you are, is a train track or one of those souvenir coin machines that smashes a pennie and imprints a picture of Florida or the beach or a manatee or something on it.
 

Introversion

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A quarter, specifically. The melting point according to google is 2647 degrees Fahrenheit. Would my character need to procure specific equipment, like a welding torch, to do this, or could they go to a friend who works *somewhere convenient* to get it done? Are there any commonly-found furnaces or household equipment that can reach that temperature?

Acetylene torches easily get hotter than that, and small ones aren’t very expensive. Whether it’s something your character has easy access to depends on where they live, I guess. Where I grew up on farms, neighbors of ours had them. An auto body shop might, I’d guess?
 

Chris P

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There's welding shops all over the place; my uncle and cousins run one. They'd melt a quarter just for laughs, and a Big Mac or cold Pepsi at the ready wouldn't even be necessary for payment.

There is also acid, but that would be harder to get. 30 years ago my dad bought some from a pharmacy because he knew the pharmacist, but I never understood why Walgreens had that behind the counter. I don't know if the acid from a car battery (sulfuric?) would dissolve both the copper core and the nickel alloy cladding on a quarter. A kindly chemistry teacher might be able to get your character some.

ETA and aside: My favorite chemistry story is Niels Bohr dissolving two Nobel recipients' prize medals in acid to hide the gold from the Nazis. Bohr re-extracted the gold and had the Nobel Commission re-cast the medals after the war.
 
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Fiender

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Thanks everyone for commenting! It sounds like my character grabbing a chemical torch or going to an auto shop might be the best way to go. (Might even be funny to have them worry about how to destroy the coin, then cut immediately to them at a body shop like "I got $50; can I watch you melt this coin?", and then have the manager be like "sure alright").

And the character is basically a paranormal investigator with no powers, so that does limit my options.
 

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Fiender, I like that version - they get all worked up, nervously making up cover stories and explanations, and it's no big deal. May they just ask "Can you melt it?", preparing to trot out a cover story and offers of payment, and the guy just takes the coin and does the deed before they can even offer the $50.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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Though the absurd in me is tickled at the idea that the magic is in how glyphs are imprinted on the coin, so running it through one of those souvenir coin smashers to distort the glyphs would work.

Don't mind me. Just giggling in a corner.
 

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https://ourpastimes.com/melt-quarter-8601647.html

Melting a quarter may seem like an odd thing to do, and possibly even illegal. However, it is only illegal if you are melting it with a fraudulent intent. Melted quarters can be re-purposed into something sentimental. For example, if you have a lucky quarter that you want to wear, you can melt it and put it into a mold for a charm that you can wear. Melting any kind of metal is dangerous and requires extreme heat. Quarters are made of copper and nickel and need a heating point of 2647 degrees Fahrenheit to melt. Propane heats to 5252 degrees F and is sufficient for melting quarters.
Set up a work area in a well-ventilated area with plenty of room. Have your supplies nearby and work on a fire-proof surface.


Set the quarter in the ceramic bowl and put on your protective gear.


Light the torch and aim it at the center of the quarter. Hold the flame there until the quarter liquefies. Quickly and carefully pour the liquid into a mold to cool.


Set the melted quarter in the mold when it is getting soft and goopy. The quarter will take the shape of the mold as it hardens.




Things You'll Need
Welding gloves
Splatter face guard
Graphite crucible
Propane torch
Mold (optional)
 
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frimble3

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Though the absurd in me is tickled at the idea that the magic is in how glyphs are imprinted on the coin, so running it through one of those souvenir coin smashers to distort the glyphs would work.

Don't mind me. Just giggling in a corner.

Or the coin is powered by a tiny little demon, and stamping the Lord's Prayer onto it kills the demon. Or, some other faith's religious symbol - maybe the guy doing the stamping doesn't even realise that it's a ward against evil - he just thinks it looks cool.
 

neandermagnon

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science nerd question: why would melting a coin destroy the magic? It's still the same substance. Like if you melt an ice cube, it's still water. It's only changed state. Maybe having it undergo a chemical reaction would work better. Dissolve it in strong acid? Is the coin made of nickel or copper or some other metal or alloy? Find out what acids dissolve that metal. Then you've got a chemical reaction and you've actually changed it into something different.
 

Chris P

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science nerd question: why would melting a coin destroy the magic? It's still the same substance. Like if you melt an ice cube, it's still water. It's only changed state. Maybe having it undergo a chemical reaction would work better. Dissolve it in strong acid? Is the coin made of nickel or copper or some other metal or alloy? Find out what acids dissolve that metal. Then you've got a chemical reaction and you've actually changed it into something different.

Copper, nickel, and other metals are elements, and are not destroyed by chemical reactions. If the magic is at the atomic level dissolving wouldn't change anything.

But . . . it's magic. We don't try to scientifically justify talking animals, so let it be magic.
 
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neandermagnon

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Copper, nickel, and other metals are elements, and are not destroyed by chemical reactions. If the magic is at the atomic level dissolving wouldn't change anything.

Table salt is sodium and chlorine - very different in properties etc than sodium and chlorine as elements. Hence a chemical change.

But . . . it's magic. We don't try to scientifically justify talking animals, so let it be magic.

It's a different take on how to destroy the coin though. It doesn't have to be justified scientifically but that doesn't mean that it can't be used as an idea. Killing something with fire (burning it) is a chemical change, and that's often used in stories. I didn't mean to imply that it had to be justified scientifically. Just that it's another way of looking at it.

If you want to destroy the atoms as well though, maybe something nuclear...? That's another potential idea.
 
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Introversion

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Hmm. Who’s to say how this works? I know! The author! :ROFL:

Magic is often tied to written symbols. Wipe out or deface the symbols, break the magic.

The OP could choose to say that the magic imbuing his coin is dependent of the metallurgical structure of the coin when it was imbued? Melt it, and the crystalline structure is remade, breaking the magic. Or, perhaps the magic is tied to the metals in the form of a thin disc. Melt it into a blobby puddle, magic gone.

Anything’s plausible if consistent, it just has to be sufficiently sold to his readers.
 

Chris P

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Table salt is sodium and chlorine - very different in properties etc than sodium and chlorine as elements. Hence a chemical change.



It's a different take on how to destroy the coin though. It doesn't have to be justified scientifically but that doesn't mean that it can't be used as an idea. Killing something with fire (burning it) is a chemical change, and that's often used in stories. I didn't mean to imply that it had to be justified scientifically. Just that it's another way of looking at it.

If you want to destroy the atoms as well though, maybe something nuclear...? That's another potential idea.

Just for the thought experiment/discussion (I'm not looking to derail this tooooooo far, and of course I have not stake in this) the difference is one of compounds versus atoms. If the magic "resides," as it were, in the compound, then dissolving sodium chloride in water would remove the magic (would it come back once the water was removed? Cool question!). If the magic resides in the sodium or the chloride atoms/ions in solution, then the magic would remain.

As both you and Introversion point out, it depends on the rules of magic in that world. To use magical salt crystals, there needs to be a reason just those salt crystals are magical, and not all salt crystals (unless all sodium chloride salt is magical in that world). A similar situation occurs with animals. Why, in that particular world, can some animals talk and others not? Stephan Pastis had a series in his Pearls Before Swine strip where a non-anthropomorphic sheep shows up, and the talking animal characters didn't really know what to do.

Whatever the rules are, they should be consistent. Fun discussion, though. Thanks! :)
 

WeaselFire

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Toss it in a charcoal fire. Depending on the coin material, it will melt pretty easily. Heck, bronze melts at about 950F and a charcoal fire burns at about 1,100F, similar to a propane torch. Oxy-acetelyne torches are closer to double that. The butane torch used for creme brulee in your local restaurant is about 1,400F.

Jeff
 
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carrie_ann

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A crematorium would work too. And add an extra level of creepy.

eta: As one who does work in a machine shop that builds pool/billiard cues I want to second that most of the guys who work in such places would think nothing of melting a coin for shits and giggles.
 
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Mutive

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I personally love the idea of dissolving it in acid, just to have the precipitate retain its magical abilities...

(But in all seriousness, dissolving it in acid would be pretty easy and fun to watch.)
 
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