The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 3, January 15, 2006, Article 21

EXTRACTING COINS EMBEDDED IN LUCITE

Dick Johnson writes: "To comment on Stephen Pradier and
Ralf W. Böpple's item in last week's E-Sylum: The toilet
seat embedded with coins has been around for 40 years.
while there are hundreds of American firms that do Lucite
embedments, not all of them have the mold – called "forms"
by these firms – of the toilet seat. The most common forms,
of course, are cubes and disks and such.

You CAN retrieve a coin or medal once it is embedded in
Lucite. At Medallic Art, where I once worked, we had medals
embedded in Lucite if that is what the customer wanted.
I got an inquiry once "How do I get the medal out of the
embedment?"

I called the best authority possible: the DuPont Company,
which makes Lucite. Some nice man in their public relations
department told me how:

Use a band saw to cut the Lucite as close to the coin or
medal as possible (without, of course, cutting into it).
Chip away with hammer and chisel even closer. Then dissolve
the remaining Lucite in warm galactic acetic acid. I Googled
"galactic acetic acid" only to learn it is found in space.
(Now I wonder if he was pulling my earth-bound leg.)

Does any E-Sylum reader / chemist know what dissolves
Lucite? Aren't you amazed at what you learn reading
The E-Sylum?"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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