500 yen coins change color

500

About 300 discolored 500 yen coins have been found in Kanagawa Prefecture (prompting national news coverage):

The batch of coins was minted only 2 months ago, yet they have somehow oxidized and become discolored. Officials are investigating the cause of the discolorization.

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7 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 9, 2009 at 6:38 am

Categories: Odd / Strange Tags:

Ryry

Behold the wonders of oxidisation, kids.
http://dimesfornickels.wordpress.com/ William George

I had one.

I thought of keeping it in case it became something collector types liked to pay lots of money for down the road. But it was lunch time and the gyudon wasn’t going to pay for itself…

Nicklas W bjurman

mmm, gyudon is far more important than a piece of low grade metals.

http://dimesfornickels.wordpress.com/ William George

True dat

James

I had one of those yesterday. I didn’t realise it was that colour till I handed it over at 7/11 and the girl flipped it over to check the other side.
Obakeinu

I suspect the ‘investigation’ involves the coins being minted ‘to spec’. Any metal coin will oxidize given time, but two months? If it were a copper based coin, then nobody would even blink an eye over it. Seems odd enough [to me].

Three possibilities: [1] somebody ‘mucked up’ the metallurgy (not too likely, but not impossible…damn interns o_0; ). [2] somebody ‘cut the corner’ [quality-wise] for budget reasons, saving or ‘pocketing’ the difference (Scandal!). [3] they’re counterfeit [a 'not-so-clever' Yak/NK plot?] (Dai-scandal?!?).

I guess it must be a ‘slow news’ month in Japan. Well, ya gotta get [if you're in the media] your dose of ‘scandal and finger-pointing’ where ever you can.

Such is life.

helical

…or the coins were put in some chemical reaction-inducing environment with oxidizing agents and electrical potential differences galore for whatever weird reason, either accidentally or on purpose.

500 yen coins change color

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