Topic: Anyone know about making Silver/Gold Coins? (Read 584 times)
I was gonna suggest asking Johnniewalker as I remembered reading a post by him about making coins I believe in the past on this forum. And Also Silver Shire had some interesting offerings also so I think you will find the answers you see from these two.
Any refinery usually has a minimum of 500 oz if you want to get a custom design made..and you have to pay for the dies (expensive!). I make a lot of my own silver bars/rounds/shapes (out of junk 925 silver refined with a bit of 999 shot) and sell them on ebay (people love hand-poured stuff for some reason). Ingots are easiest-I use wood molds out of small toy chests from the craft store (one time use obviously but A LOT easier-and cheaper-than graphite).
I use stuff called daft clay (or "greensand"-you can buy it at lows) when I want to cast specific shapes/things. I made a silver piece of garlic the other day. You'll also need something called a casting flask. But basically its as easy as packing the flask as tight as you can with the clay/sand, pressing the object inside (the flask is two pieces) and then making a channel to pour the silver down. The results are always good. I imagine it would be easy enough to make some kind of a mold of a custom coin w/wax or something and then just use that as your object with the clay/sand. You should check out some videos on YouTube.
As far as the actual melting (if you don't know this already) its easiest to use a "poor man's crucible" and a MAPP Gas (Propane doesn't really get hot enough) torch w/some Borax as a flux.
Good luck!
**Edit: Just read your entire post (*face palm*). I would just work on perfecting the daft clay method because once you get into making dies its a whole different ball game.
I use stuff called daft clay (or "greensand"-you can buy it at lows) when I want to cast specific shapes/things. I made a silver piece of garlic the other day. You'll also need something called a casting flask. But basically its as easy as packing the flask as tight as you can with the clay/sand, pressing the object inside (the flask is two pieces) and then making a channel to pour the silver down. The results are always good. I imagine it would be easy enough to make some kind of a mold of a custom coin w/wax or something and then just use that as your object with the clay/sand. You should check out some videos on YouTube.
As far as the actual melting (if you don't know this already) its easiest to use a "poor man's crucible" and a MAPP Gas (Propane doesn't really get hot enough) torch w/some Borax as a flux.
Good luck!
**Edit: Just read your entire post (*face palm*). I would just work on perfecting the daft clay method because once you get into making dies its a whole different ball game.
Here's some slightly embarrassing fun from 5 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA584XBkP0s You can even use something like this with a sledgehammer. But its a damn pain and very slow to do it this way.
Gave up on the idea of small scale minting, and created the Shire Silver card model. Much better, IMHO.
Gave up on the idea of small scale minting, and created the Shire Silver card model. Much better, IMHO.
I've been learning about casting along with my handmade stuff lately and I can easily find everything on how to make silver/gold ingot bars, even the moulds for them but I have no idea about doing small scale coin casting. I found this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyh9SI5UhnY&feature=player_embedded but this one is for an industrial process, I need to find something much more small scale, since you guys are obsessed with Silver and Gold I figured I could ask you lot if you knew anything about this 
If you stumble across anything let me know!
I just found out this and it's a classic case of needing to know the vocabulary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coining_%28mint%29 - looks likes I need to find out all about how to make coin dies now.
hurray! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6T_ZutXzNQ
I found a video that shows what I need to do with delft clay casting which is what I've been using too.
If you stumble across anything let me know!
I just found out this and it's a classic case of needing to know the vocabulary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coining_%28mint%29 - looks likes I need to find out all about how to make coin dies now.
hurray! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6T_ZutXzNQ
I found a video that shows what I need to do with delft clay casting which is what I've been using too.
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