Was looking to buy a set of electrotypes and someone sent me a pm with some coins made from lead. Do you think lead coins are safe to keep in the house?
It's fine as long as you treat them as you would other coins... not lick them and wash your hands after handling. If you have small children obviously keep them in a place where they can't get to them.
Many people have lead fishing sinkers in their house. If you don't want lead in your house, stear clear of those coins.
Don`t drive cars because car batteries have lead in them My Dad drank water from lead pipes for half his life, he`s 97 now and still going strong. As long as you don`t injest it or inject it in large quantities you will be fine.
There is nothing wrong with bringing lead coins in the house. Make sure you wash you hands after handling them. There is lead everywhere. Even in the soil outside your house. Do you have house plants? The media has everyone so scared of it that you get questions like the one above. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to denigrate the OP's question. If you don't know, it makes sense to ask. Which was done. I have close to 2 tons of lead, and have cast bullets for about 50 years. I keep some lead bars in the basement, along with my casting equipment. I only cast outdoors, and make sure to stay up wind when casting. I just don't handle food or drink while messing with it. What you don't want to do is turn it into a dust or super heat it to a red oxide, or make a point of breathing the vapors of the molten lead. I know and have access to literally hundreds of other casters world wide, many in their 80's with complete mental faculties. I have my blood checked every year, and there is no indication of lead. While everyone in my city may dispute this, I seem to be in good physical and mental health, and all my children have grown up healthy and have above average intelligence.
All good points above. The media loves scaring people and never putting things in context. The danger with lead is ingestion, especially in children. No danger owning coins, and washing your hands after is really just a safety precaution for adults. Heck, I have many pre-columbian copper spade coins made with high amounts of arsenic. Probably way riskier than lead coins, but again fine as you wash your hands after handling them.
Just use common sense and wash after handling them. A good number of Kings, Queens, Emperors and other rich people became crazy because they used leaded crystal and pewter for long periods of time.
And yet a lot of people have mercury in their homes and dont even know it. FYI, if you have an older furnace, maybe 25+ years old, and your thermostat is one that you turn like a dial, it most likely has a mercury switch in it. It is sealed in a glass bulb with two or three wires attached to it. I have a family member in the HVAC business, which is where i got my mercury from. And dont even get me started on the "energy saving" light bulbs.
No worries..... I been fishing and fashioning fishing lures with lead almost fifty years. Though I have grown a third eye and my hands are an odd aqua color I have had no ill effects....... No, seriously. As has been said.... All is fine having lead around. Just don’t injest the stuff.
I do a lot of shooting, have lead bullets in the house all the time. Just wash your hands after handling, and do not eat while handling lead.
And when people were finally scared off of the lead paint the latex paints became very popular. Problem was being latex and water based they tended to grow mold. So mercury was added to the paint as an anti-fungicide. Over time the mercury out-gases from the paint and you wind up breathing the mercury in.
The game is simple: scare society into believing something will kill them. Then make new product that is more expensive but "safer". Profit. Look into the refrigerant that goes into cars for air conditioning. It is called R134-A. It is also used in appliances. It will no longer be made as of 2024 because of environmental factors. Truth is that DuPont who makes it, their patent expires on it at that time. Heck of a coincidence. If it was so bad for the environment, why wait until 2024 to ban it? It's all about money plain and simple.
As long as the water in lead pipes isn't acidic, the pipe will have a lead oxide coating on the inside, but if the PH drops too much the coating will dissolve and elemental lead will start leaching into the water.
