1996 Dave And Buster's Collectable Coin: Lead Free [29% Zinc, 70% Copper!]

Recently a reader of mine (and actually a long-time friend in the Lead-poisoning prevention world) contacted me to ask if I had ever tested one of these Dave and Buster’s coins. I was not at all familiar with Dave and Buster’s, but I looked it up and this appears to be a coin similar to those that used to be used by Chuck-E-Cheese (before they switched over to using cards instead of tokens).

My friend had contacted me because he had someone contact him with concerns about the potential for a Lead-poisoning ingestion hazard (in the event that a a child should manage to swallow one of these coins.)

I went ahead and ordered this one (pictured here) on E-bay. It is clearly marked as a coin from 1996, so I can only comment on this one coin (and generally can only extrapolate to similar coins from the same year.) It is possible that other Dave and Buster’s coins from other years might have Lead, given they are brass – however this one was negative (“non-detect”) for Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic and Antimony, when tested with an XRF instrument (a Niton XL3T) in “Consumer Goods” mode.

Note: while the focus of my work is generally restricted to testing consumer goods for the presence of the most common high-potency metallic neurotoxicants (Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Arsenic and Antimony), the level of Zinc here – if swallowed and subject to stomach acids – could possibly be poisonous [and I don’t know anything about the possible toxicity for such a high amount of Copper].

Below is the full XRF reading for the coin pictured, when tested for at least 60 seconds. Metals not detected [when analyzed in “Consumer Goods” mode] are not listed below. All test results reported on this blog are science-based and replicable.

Zinc (Zn): 294,500 +/- 2,400 ppm
Copper (Cu): 703,900 +/- 3,200 ppm
no other metals detected

Thank you for reading and for sharing this post.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. The work reported here on this blog is directed by (and funded by) you… my readers. To learn more about participating in the testing I report on this blog, click here. To make a contribution in support of my childhood Lead poisoning prevention advocacy work, click here.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama