Use of Mercury instead of tin in bullet casting?

[John in WYO]

So I'm reading old Handloader magazines from my collection. I'm on page 75 of Handloader #265, February/March 2010. The article is "Cartridges That Smell of Gun Smoke." by Terry Wieland.

Next to a picture at the bottom of the page is this caption:

"The lead bullet, whether pure or tempered with tin or mercury (quicksilver) was an outstanding game bullet at black-powder velocities..."

I had never heard of using mercury in bullet casting. I found no mention in my copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, Third Edition.

Anyone have any comments or knowledge?

[gray wolf]

off the top of my head---
NO WAY would I add Mercury to 650* lead.

[PhantomF4E]

Unless you want the EPA knocking , I'd stay away from the Mercury...

[JeffinNZ]

No. No. No. No. No.

No!

Keep yourself safe, please.

[pipehand]

Some of us have amalgam fillings in our teeth- a mix of silver and mercury. I had heard of the hardening of lead using mercury before, but am not sure how it was done. Not even considering doing it, but does anyone have any info?

[Awsar]

not positive but i heard a story of using mercury to clean lead out of barrels back in the day.
also heard people putting mercury in hollow points to make them expand ?
all i know is its dangerous stuff.

[madsenshooter]

I had a very long mercury thermometer once, the type that goes into a small laboratory kiln. Was stirring my pot lightly and it broke. The boiling point of mercury is only 674.1F, and the pot was approaching 800F at that time, so I imagine it all became mercury vapor pretty rapidly. Back before the electric hot pot, they might not have gotten up to that temp and managed to alloy some into pure lead. Other than my experience contaminating a whole room, I don't know anything about hardening with it, probably read the same thing you did.

[pipehand]

not positive but i heard a story of using mercury to clean lead out of barrels back in the day.
also heard people putting mercury in hollow points to make them expand ?
all i know is its dangerous stuff.

You're right about using it to remove leading. Heard it causes the lead to lift right off the barrel and can be removed in long threads. I use hydrogen peroxide and vinegar mixed to remove stubborn leading without mercury. But the byproduct is lead acetate, which isn't so good either.

[MtGun44]

I'm in my 60s and mercury is not good for you, but I guarantee that about 2 of 3 people
my age have played with mercury more than once in their lives without apparent harm. The
danger is pretty over-rated. Anyone that had fillings prior to about 30 yrs ago had/still has
silver-mercury amalgam as the fillings in your mouth for the rest of your life.

Never heard of mixing it with lead, but if you rubbed it onto a silver coin (how many know that
our coins used to be real silver!?) it would mix on the surface quickly and make it super
shiny - a liquid surface, and super slippery, too. After a few hours the mercury would dissolve
into the coin leaving it a flat, clean silver color.

Bill

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Yes mercury is noxious/harmful stuff and it has to be handled carefully. It was used a lot back in the day to remove lead(ing) from gun barrels. Usually the breach end of a barrel was tightly...repeat tightly- plugged/corked and mercury was poured into the barrel. It was then allowed to sit for a while. The mercury amalgamated or softened the lead and floated it. It got all the lead-repeat all...out of the tube and no scrubbing was necessary. If the cork or plug wasn't tight then you had to chase the stuff all over the room and the house. When finished you poured the mercury with the floating lead back into the container it came from, skimmed off the lead and tossed it. You saved the mercury for the next time you needed it. Good gloves were worn just in case(skin contact is bad as it is absorbed) and you stashed the mercury in a safe, secure and secret place. The first two patches you ran down the bore afterward were also safely disposed of. Don't even think about adding mercury to a heat source where it can vaporize...the vapor if inhaled will kill you deader than canned tuna. LLS

[John in WYO]

I didn't say I was going to do it.:veryconfu

I was wondering if anyone else had ever heard of it.

I remember in 6th (1967 or so) grade our science teacher used to pour mercury on the table and let us play around with it.
No Personal Protective Equipment or anything. :eek:
Hell, I rode my Schwinn Stingray without a helmet, shot without hearing protection, had dirt clod fights (sometimes rock fights), bb gun fights and lots of other "dangerous stuff" that todays kids aren't allowed to do. Even had fistfights! :shock:

I'm with MtGun44. We still survived it all.

I just wonder where the info from that caption came from. There has to be some oldtimers here who have read even older manuscripts that mention it. I'm just too young to have heard of it before. (And I've got my 8th grandchild on the way!)

And "Thanks" to madsenshooter with the info about the boiling point of mercury. Yep, my casting pot is hotter than that. I wouldn't want to inhale mercury vapor. Don't know if it's even available to buy anymore.

[Firebricker]

I think something I was reading a while back mentioned using mercury in boolits used on African safari but can't remember what it was. I've heard of cleaning lead out of barrels with it so would it remove copper fouling too ? I know it's irrelevant since you can't legally own it but curious. FB

[btroj]

I can play in traffic for hours and not get hit by a car but I don't recommend it.
Idiots shot ammo with gross overcharges of powder without destroying a gun buti don't recommend it.

Mercury is a known hazard. Why even contemplate working with something that nasty if we don't need too?

[oneokie]

Fulminate of Mercury was used in primers at one time. Many ammo makers at one time marketed their goods as having non-muratic primers.

[leadman]

A friend of mine had a dad that repaired and made neon signs. It was pretty common for us to be playing with it, even in school.
I do remember reading that it removes lead from barrels easily. It also can cause brass to become brittle.
Maybe that is part of my problems??

[Oreo]

In third-world countries mercury is used in gold mining. It disolves the gold fines in soil. The mercury is then collected by washing away the soil. The mercury is then removed by heating till it vaporizes away leaving the gold behind.

Don't let mercury come into contact with your jewelry!

[rexherring]

In it's liquid and gas state it is very toxic and I wouldn't even think of using it. When small amounts are made into an amalgam like your fillings, it binds with the other metal and is fairly safe. I used to have many of those fillings and my blood tests never showed any above normal levels.

[Mooseman]

Mercury is a heavy metal , but if handled properly it has its place. It will amalgam with many metals lead and gold are just 2 or them. Mercury is only dangerous if you ingest it or breathe the vapors if it is heated, or handle it with bare hands. We use it for fine gold recovery and in a retort with a water bath you re-collect it. I keep large quantities on hand for gold mining or lead removal . I have recovered lots of mercury laden with gold from old tailing piles here in Alaska.
If you eat ocean fish, you are eating Mercury ! Tuna and Salmon absorb it.

[DRNurse1]

Le Loup Solitaire,btroj, Mooseman: your points are well taken, IF the OP elects to play with Mercury, knowing what we now know about mitigating its effects, the OP and others should heed your methodology. Knowing the boiling point (674.1F or 356.73C) of this metal that is liquid at room temperature is also valuable.

[Stephen Cohen]

Im supprised you cant own it, I have a good couple pounds of it in a Jar, yes I used to use it to clean leaded barrels. As a young kid we used to play with large bowls of it at school and it would turn a gold ring silver untill it wore off. Our Ausy 303 brit projectiles had mercury in the led core to harden it, I was told as a kid to never melt them for sinkers as the mercury would kill you. How they used it to harden led I have no idea but perhaps we need to be carefull with our range led in case.

[I'll Make Mine]

The other mercury bullet thread... (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?3717-Mercury-alloy-anyone)

(Tha's a link, son -- don't know why my browser isn't highlighting it this morning, but it does change color if I mouse over it)

The usual way of alloying metals with wildly different melting points is to melt the lower melting metal first, then dissolve the higher melting into the pot. With mercury already molten at room temperature, you'd most likely add the lead to the mercury in a cold pot, then heat just until the alloy is melted before casting your boolits. The alloy almost certainly melts at a lower temperature than lead (which, as noted above, melts at or just below the boiling point of mercury), and starting with amalgam would let you get the melt going and make up your alloy without boiling off the mercury.

That said, I have to agree with opinions above, that making boolits with mercury is generally a bad idea, when a slightly larger amount of (much cheaper and vastly less hazardous) tin, or even smaller amounts of tin and antimony together, will do just as good a job of hardening boolits. Personally, I'll stick to wheel weights...

[Moonman]

Ever hear the saying "MAD AS A HATTER?"

Hatteries used to clean hats with MERCURY.

The END RESULT was they ending up going MAD as in CRAZY.

[quack1]

[QUOTE=Firebricker;1929694]I think something I was reading a while back mentioned using mercury in boolits used on African safari but can't remember what it was. I've heard of cleaning lead out of barrels with it so would it remove copper fouling too ? I know it's irrelevant since you can't legally own it but curious. FB[/QUOT

The book might be by Wild Beasts and Their Ways by Samuel Baker. Pretty sure he mentioned using mercury in bullets while on safari in Africa.
If mercury is illegal there are a lot of lawbreakers that still have mercury thermometers, let alone old guys that used it to remove lead from barrels and still have it.

[Down South]

I'm in my 60s and mercury is not good for you, but I guarantee that about 2 of 3 people
my age have played with mercury more than once in their lives without apparent harm. The
danger is pretty over-rated. Anyone that had fillings prior to about 30 yrs ago had/still has
silver-mercury amalgam as the fillings in your mouth for the rest of your life.

Never heard of mixing it with lead, but if you rubbed it onto a silver coin (how many know that
our coins used to be real silver!?) it would mix on the surface quickly and make it super
shiny - a liquid surface, and super slippery, too. After a few hours the mercury would dissolve
into the coin leaving it a flat, clean silver color.

Bill
I did the coin trick many a time when I was a kid.

[Shiloh]

Mercuric fumes are a deadly poison. Mercury in any form is poisonous and to be avoided.

Shiloh

[quilbilly]

Mercuric fumes are a deadly poison. Mercury in any form is poisonous and to be avoided.

Shiloh
I agree but the level of mercury that is toxic has never been established. Mercury is now the way the ecofascists may use to stampede the scientifically illiterate government educated masses into attacks on capitalism. Here in Puget Sound, it is used regularly by the greenies to get government grants to do useless cleanups or put capitalists out of business. What you never hear is that mercury is naturally occurring in volcanic soils and people have been living with it for thousands of years. You also never hear that the mineral cinnabar (mercuric sulfide if memory serves) is common around our local river drainages so greenies can stop any industry.
In any case, avoid any contact and use as few of those mercury lights as possible but don't to be part of the stampede either.

[Bent Ramrod]

Unless you are allergic to the metal, mercury isn't particularly toxic per se. Where it gets toxic is when it is oxidized, dissolved in acidic media or metabolized by certain bacteria into organomercury compounds. It is the mercuric or mercurous ion that is toxic, especially to the nerves, which is why those affected become paralyzed or non compos mentis. I recall reading the old guys used to dump an ounce of mercury into 20 lbs of lead to harden it. Antimony would probably harden it just as well without the worries of spills and the expense.

They used to give solutions of calomel (mercurous chloride) to kids as medicine. The only reason they didn't die was the mercurous chloride is so low in solubility that there was hardly any of the ion there.

[303Guy]

Unless you are allergic to the metal, mercury isn't particularly toxic per se.A little known fact is that one can only be allergic to a protein - it's the bodies unsolicited antibody reaction to a protein. Mercury sensitivity, yes.

Getting back to the original question (which was not on mercury toxicity but what it does to lead) - I always thought mercury softened lead! I thought filling a hollow nose boolit with mercury softened the nose by the mercury dissolving into the lead. Well, I thought wrong I guess. Can anyone explain how mercury hardens lead? What exactly is an amalgam? Mercury-Silver amalgam is pretty hard and strong (I have plenty in my mouth - it's not soluble and is dangerous to get removed because it can release mercury into the system if not done correctly. Same with with putting it in!)

I would suspect mercury was more readily available back in the day when it's toxicity was unknown and/or not cared about. I sure has hell would not like to meat shot with a mercury containing boolit!

I too played with mercury as a kid. Did it do me any harm? Might have but probably didn't. I was born with aspergers as were my whole family. So was Einstein but I'm no Einstein.:cry:

Reagan said; "It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that ain't so". I liked Reagan, maybe it was his actor charm.

[I'll Make Mine]

Mercury in a hollow point bullet works by ensuring there's a pressure build-up on impact to expand the bullet, regardless what you hit; for instance, you don't have the HP blocking up with cotton fibers from a denim jacket, and then failing to expand in the flesh behind, with a mercury tip, because the tip will expand on contact with the denim. Of course, you will most likely be sued into bankruptcy for employing a homemade mercury tip bullet and exposing your assailant to that hazardous substance when you fire in self defense...

Amalgam is the generic term for any mercury alloy; mercury will alloy at room temperature with virtually any metal other than platinum. In some cases, it does so aggressively enough to be a problem; don't ever try to store mercury in an aluminum container, as the liquid metal will eat the aluminum like saturated brine destroying an ice block (and it doesn't take much to do it, either). Mercury hardens lead the same way most other alloying agents do: by distorting the face centered cubic crystal lattice, making it harder to push lattice elements over one another due to the "pinning" action of the different sized atoms scattered at random through the material. If you could alloy lead with another element having identical atomic radius and a face centered cubic crystal habit, you'd most likely find that it would have virtually no hardening effect (don't know that there is such an element; in fact, I'm fairly sure there isn't). Common alloying metals, however, like tin, arsenic, antimony, etc. have different atomic radii and in some cases, different crystal habits as well -- so they distort the lattice and prevent the different lattice planes (of which BCC has more than any other) from slipping, so requiring more energy to deform the alloy than with pure lead (this is what we call "hardening").

[303Guy]

Thanks. But surely it wouldn't be possible to maintain that mercury tip boolit? Or does it form an alloy of mercury as opposed to an alloy of lead? And would it be stable over time? (Obviously I'm not prepared to experiment which I would otherwise be tempted to).

[ph4570]

[QUOTE=Firebricker;1929694]I think something I was reading a while back mentioned using mercury in boolits used on African safari but can't remember what it was. I've heard of cleaning lead out of barrels with it so would it remove copper fouling too ? I know it's irrelevant since you can't legally own it but curious. FB[/QUOT

The book might be by Wild Beasts and Their Ways by Samuel Baker. Pretty sure he mentioned using mercury in bullets while on safari in Africa.
If mercury is illegal there are a lot of lawbreakers that still have mercury thermometers, let alone old guys that used it to remove lead from barrels and still have it.

Yes, I snagged a free copy of said book this day from Amazon for the Kindle. There is a passage that speaks of using quicksilver in a 1:13 ratio. The implication was that it is equivalent to a 1:10 tin ratio for boolit hardness. It is a good read so far. I recommend it.

[oneokie]

Thanks. But surely it wouldn't be possible to maintain that mercury tip boolit? Or does it form an alloy of mercury as opposed to an alloy of lead? And would it be stable over time? (Obviously I'm not prepared to experiment which I would otherwise be tempted to).

No, you would not be able to maintain a mercury filled hollow point boolit for a very long period of time, as the mercury will start dissolving the lead upon contact. And you would have to seal the mercury in the cavity with wax.

[doctorggg]

I don't think the OP had any intention of using it. He was just inquiring about info he read. I am not advocating this but I played with mercury everytime a thermometer was broken. I attended dental school from 1977-1981. Back then we actually had liquid mercury that we added to silver pellets. This was placed in a capsule then amalgamated. We then used a squeeze cloth (piece of gauze) to squeeze out the excess mercury from the amalgam. All this without gloves. We also had asbestos strips to cut and place in a crucible before casting a gold crown. I do not test positive for heavy metal contamination. But maybe that is the reason I have CRS (can't remember stuff). However if I had known what we know today I would never have done any of this.

[I'll Make Mine]

Thanks. But surely it wouldn't be possible to maintain that mercury tip boolit? Or does it form an alloy of mercury as opposed to an alloy of lead? And would it be stable over time? (Obviously I'm not prepared to experiment which I would otherwise be tempted to).

The method I recall reading about making mercury tip bullets had one seating a suitable size of gas check, cup up, into the hollow point on top of the mercury. I don't know how much lead can dissolve into mercury -- let me check and see if Google can tell me...

Well, this reference (http://www.southerncrossmetalrecyclers.com.au/scrap/lead-amalgam.html) says a lead amalgam will remain liquid at up to 33% lead -- that'll be by weight, and mercury is denser than lead by around 15%, so if you have a light bullet with a large hollow cavity, you could wind up with the entire jacket filled with liquid lead amalgam. More likely, the mercury would slowly (at room temperature) dissolve the lead until the percentage got high enough for the amalgam to solidify. How long that would take, Google doesn't want to reveal at this time...

[JIMinPHX]

Chem class was many years ago, but I seem to remember reading that mercury should not be stored in brass or aluminum because it would have an adverse reaction. That alone would make me think that it might be a bad idea to load a mercury alloy boolit into a brass case.

[Firebricker]

ph4570,Thanks for the reference it's getting close to "sit and read a book weather" so I'll find a copy. Not so much for the mention of mercury as always enjoy a good hunting book. FB

[Jeffrey]

Re: mercury legality and availability. Mercury is present in EVERY florescent tube, even compacts. Up until relatively recently mercury switches were used in thermostats. I've been told mercury switches can no longer imported into Louisiana. I do know mercury switch thermostats are unavailable in LA.

[mehavey]

It is (near) impossible to become "mercury poisoned" through incidental/child-experienced liquid mercury handling. Nor is is easy (or even probable) to become poisoned by ingesting liquid mercury in any ordinarily conceivable circumstance. The screaming and yelling of "mercury panic" is just that -- deliberately over-induced mass hysteria by the media. (Think on how well they report the technical aspects of any gun-related stories and you get the picture.)

HOWEVER.....

inhalation of mercury fumes (through heating/constant exposure to high concentrations in closed environments (aka mad-hatter syndrome) produces neurological damage; and ingestion of mercury in any of its various salts or organic forms is absolutely DEADLY.

[Jim]

I Googled "Is mercury poisonous to touch" and only got a little over a million responses. Not much there to back it up, huh? [smilie=1:

[mehavey]

None. The reality is pretty much here:

Quicksilver (liquid metallic mercury) is poorly absorbed by ingestion and skin contact. It is hazardous due to its potential to release mercury vapor. Animal data indicate less than 0.01% of ingested mercury is absorbed through the intact gastrointestinal tract, though it may not be true for individuals suffering from ileus. Cases of systemic toxicity from accidental swallowing are rare, and attempted suicide via intravenous injection does not appear to result in systemic toxicity.[18] Though not studied quantitatively, the physical properties of liquid elemental mercury limit its absorption through intact skin and in light of its very low absorption rate from the gastrointestinal tract, skin absorption would not be high.[19] Some mercury vapor is absorbed dermally, but uptake by this route is only about 1% of that by inhalation.[20]

Ref 19 ("TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILE FOR MERCURY") is interesting reading even if it effectively says not to "...sling it all around to where it gets absorbed into walls/clothing/materials where you'll spend a lot of enclosed time" since it will slowly sublimate (Mad Hatter time again). Note also it says "Even when a larger amount of metal mercury (a half of a tablespoon, about 204 grams) was swallowed by one person, very little entered the body."

Mercury salts/compounds, and organic mercury will kill you -- dead -- and make you real unhappy along the way. But you gotta work real hard/be real stupid for normal amounts of mercury metal to do the same. (Otherwise, half the curious/playful children born in the first half of the 20th century would be dead.)

Common sense applies big time here. **

18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F10408440600845619
19. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp46.pdf
20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F00039896.1989.9934385





** post script: Do I need to emphasize the need NOT (in any way) to heat metallic mercury?

[I'll Make Mine]

Do I need to emphasize the need NOT (in any way) to heat metallic mercury?

An interesting, slightly off topic aside here -- Daguerreotype photography (and 1840-ish process that preceded the wet plates used during the Civil War) has seen a resurgence since about 1990, and the canonical method of developing an exposed Daguerreotype plate is to "fume" it over heated mercury metal (there's an alternate method involving very long exposure to red light, but it gives much lower sensitivity and takes, literally, a week to develop a plate, where fuming takes a few minutes). Modern Daguerreotypists, of course, would prefer to avoid exposure to the resulting mercury vapor and for environmental reasons would also like to avoid venting it to the atmosphere; they found that they can capture the vapor from the fuming dish well enough that their exhaust contains no detectable vapor, by running the air from the fuming box through a cold trap where dry ice or liquid nitrogen condenses 99.999% of the vapor (which is already a very tiny amount). The primary consideration, other than ensuring there's enough cold material available in the cold trap to keep the temperature well below -40º, is to ensure that there's a forced air flow out of the fuming box into the cold trap (an exhaust fan behind the trap is the standard method of doing this). A bonus for these primitive photographers is that they cut their mercury consumption (i.e. the amount of make-up metal they have to buy) to virtually nothing; each plate consumes only a few milligrams, the rest is recovered from the trap.

[303Guy]

I shouldn't read threads like this - makes me want to go play with the stuff!:guntootsmiley:

But I won't. [smilie=1: Really!

[mehavey]

makes me want to go play with the stuff! But I won't.
Smart move.

Otherwise you might wind up like us kids of the 40s ...the 40s ...the 40s ...the 40s ...the40s ...the40s

[troy_mclure]

Mercury has been ingested for centuries as a folk remedy by many cultures.
As a side note my dad has a box of 7.62x39 that is either copper or copper washed steel jacketed projectiles full of mercury. They are ruski and still in the original box. I know some of them are "light" as you can feel the mercury shift.

[Harter66]

Knock on wood,as a kid I swam for several years in a river,lakes and canals downstream of the Comstock lode area w/o being to poisoned from 1974-1994 I drank from shallow wells feed by same. In the 90s signage showed up stating more than 2 fish consumed from those waters per week might be bad for you.by 2000 you shouldn't eat them at all but a pound per month won't hurt you too bad.
The entire reserve is now in the state and in places could be "mined" today w/a garbage pump and several staged water bbl from the Carson river ,Lohonton(sp) res.,and probably several upper canals of the Truckee/Carson irrigation district.

Contents of a screw in CFL bulb........ well 10,000 bulbs will make 1 oral thermometer.,5,00 or so for the 4' tube floresents.

Mercury is bulk shipped in a plastic jar, inside a double "O"ring sealed steel jar inside a plastic lined cardboard buffered steel drum on galvanized steel pallets w/a plastic catch tray.

Beyond this I don't any insight on it beyond what has been stated.

I know a fellow that offered to do a cleanup for salvage rights to the metal, he was denied as his methods may have dislodged and allowed the migration down stream of mercury. The floods from several wet winters and warm springs and early rains took care of that a few years later.

Just as a footnote mercury is often found naturally in the company of lead,silver,and gold. Cyanide is now used by the US mining industry to separate rocks from gold and silver. Don't you feel safer already?

[JIMinPHX]

Cyanide is now used by the US mining industry to separate rocks from gold and silver. Don't you feel safer already?

I thought that I heard somewhere that borax was supposed to be the new rage in the mining industry for safely separating out the gold fines. I believe that cyanide was the standard material that was used back in the early 1940's, when the Vulture Mine was still in production up around wickenburg az. I don't know how long before or after that it was still in common use.

[I'll Make Mine]

Cyanide is/was used because it forms a soluble complex with gold, which is otherwise almost impossible to leach out of lower grade ores. I expect it's still used in a lot of places, because with proper handling it's not very hazardous (less hazardous in its usual usage than the sulfuric acid used to leach copper), degrades fairly rapidly in the environment, and will do something nothing else will: allow recovery of gold (and silver, and copper, but other things work for those) from ores that would otherwise be uneconomical to mine (a few grams per tonne).

[Shiloh]

I agree but the level of mercury that is toxic has never been established. Mercury is now the way the ecofascists may use to stampede the scientifically illiterate government educated masses into attacks on capitalism. Here in Puget Sound, it is used regularly by the greenies to get government grants to do useless cleanups or put capitalists out of business. What you never hear is that mercury is naturally occurring in volcanic soils and people have been living with it for thousands of years. You also never hear that the mineral cinnabar (mercuric sulfide if memory serves) is common around our local river drainages so greenies can stop any industry.
In any case, avoid any contact and use as few of those mercury lights as possible but don't to be part of the stampede either.

The Chinese make intricate ornamental boxes out of cinnabar.
Isn't mercury what cost GE in upstate N.Y. a boatload of money??

Shiloh

[mdi]

I'm in my 60s and mercury is not good for you, but I guarantee that about 2 of 3 people
my age have played with mercury more than once in their lives without apparent harm. The
danger is pretty over-rated. Anyone that had fillings prior to about 30 yrs ago had/still has
silver-mercury amalgam as the fillings in your mouth for the rest of your life.

Never heard of mixing it with lead, but if you rubbed it onto a silver coin (how many know that
our coins used to be real silver!?) it would mix on the surface quickly and make it super
shiny - a liquid surface, and super slippery, too. After a few hours the mercury would dissolve
into the coin leaving it a flat, clean silver color.

Bill
I think the lead poisoning/mercury poisoning scare is overblown. Today it seems to exaggerate about health/safety measures is ok, as long as it's "for the greater good" (thanks to scare tactics by polititions pushing their agenda/looking for votes. Remember CA's "no lead zone"? More tree-huggers than hunters spoke up and they don't need no steeenking facts)). I played with mercury as a kid and remember it could be purcased at drug stores. I played with it bare handed, don't remember if I put any in my mouth (mebbe that's why I have 3 thumbs:veryconfu), but I certainly didn't wear a respirator ot rubber gloves (mebbe I was supposed to drink some for ill effects). I started casting sinkers 50 years ago, and bullets about 15 years ago. Last blood test, just out of curiosity, I asked for "heavy metals" testing, because of some of the materials I've handled in the last 60+ years, and results were "lower than normal. Very good". On top of that I have never met anyone, read factual reports of anyone, or heard factual reports of anyone troubled by high lead/mercury levels from casting bullets, shooting indoors, or reloading/shooting lead bullets. I'm sure there are case studies in medical journels, but for us normal guys, it's exaggerated, IMO...