Turning pennies gold

For this video, I'm gonna try turning this penny into gold, which is something that I've always wanted to do.

Procedure:
1) Wash penny with vinegar and salt
2) Drop it into 3M NaOH (12g NaOH in 100mL water) + zinc metal
3) Dry it, put it on a hot plate, and turn on the heat
4) Gold

Unfortunately though, even it really looks like it, it isn't real gold. It's actually brass, and it formed because the heat caused the zinc coating, to combine with the copper in the penny.

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[rrangwooo]

Actually, you don’t need that many steps. If you have many pennies, like tons of them, you can just buy gold.

[OmnipresentPotato]

I imagine doing this back when alchemy was a thing, and fooling people into thinking I'm the best alchemist of all time.

[AirmetSierra]

We actually did this exact experiment in my high school chemistry class, except we used a bunsen burner instead of a hotplate, so some people ended up accidentally melting their penny.

[steve_urchin]

Him: “it’s just basic chemistry”
Me: “yeah, right alchemist”

[RealCadde]

As you did the last step and it turned into "gold" i was so happy to know that Zn + Cu makes brass.
However, it surprised me that the reaction could take place at such low temperatures.

[F-Man]

You just made the penny *actually* worth one cent now.

[kagedevshorts]

Ah yes. Nile doing something pointless yet fascinating again.

[Kwasmo]

Every pirate in a 5 mile radius would like to know your location

[ultranovva]

I remember doing this in 9th grade chemistry, it was pretty fun, I turned a 1980s Canadian penny into brass, I also tried a 5 Euro cent, and it half turned, almost a rose gold color, I think because there wasn't enough copper, or I didn't put it in for long enough.

[expertjacksonwilliams]

My wife and I did very well in the amount of money that we amassed for retirement. Well over 80% of that money was made because of taking advantage of buying high-end stocks at a deep discount during the Great Recession. 2009 I fired the stockbroker got rid of all mutual funds and bought individual dividend stocks. Be patient don't get scared and do your homework and you can make a killing.

[duythuchoang]

He did it, he has done the alchemist dream

[mr.cloudy]

You have done what all alchemists have dreamed of doing

[raihanmirza-ak]

Nile: *turns penny into gold*
King Midas: finally, a worthy opponent

[gordo]

Thanks for helping on my AP chem Lab, this video hit all of the reasoning easy :-)

[fish]

Those could be real convincing prop gold coins, ngl

[Merennulli]

After turning his pennies to gold, he now realizes it was a cents-less act.

[beady]

This actually was one of the first experiments we did in chemistry class.

[CrimsonSurvival]

You can bury them, and send your Grandkids on a treasure hunt.

[sadhlife]

Fun fact, this was the first ever chemistry experiment he tried out, and it failed back then because he used Drano as the drain cleaner instead of pure NaOH. I think he was 12 at the time.

[MrFunnever]

Thank you so much! Ive been trying to figure out how I could paint a knife gold without gold. Tried electroplating with brass bu it didn't work, so just coated it in copper instead. This is exactly what I needed!