Just came across these photos of a ring I made last year so thought I would post it up here.

 

Made from a 1950 British halfpenny. I am sure all of you clever folks on here know how they are made (I am sure some have even been posted up here before) but it took me a few days to work it out and make it!

 

i dont know how its made, but its very groovy i love it!! very sweet ring. :)

that IS cool!  I have done the hole-punched inside-out quarter rings, and i made one from two dimes hole punched and turned mostly inside out and then soldered into an upside down V section.  very cleanly executed, i have had some difficulty with killing the lettering during the process =/

 

it looks like you hole punched the center out, inverted it on a mandrel/block of wood, and then sawcut through the thickness of the coin but not all the way through and then spread open that sawcut.  is that something like what you did?

 

i wonder if it would be possible to hole punch the center, and then get a cutting disk on a rotary tool into the inside to make the cut, and then fold it open so the writing would be on the outside?  i think i have some old half pennies at home, may have to take a whack at that :)

 

edit: correction, i read the direction of the text wrong, doesnt look like you inverted the 'washer', hole punch -> sawcut outside edge -> spread open sawcut?

Well little hint - all i used was a hammer, small anvil, drill bit and drill, round file and some emery cloth to polish. All used in that order!

meaning you were able to upset the perimeter prior to drilling the center hole out?  yer killing my productivity trying to put that together man :)

meaning you were able to upset the perimeter prior to drilling the center hole out?  yer killing my productivity trying to put that together man :)

 

Indeed, lots of tapping and rotating! If you tap too hard it will start to bend and it seems near impossible to get it back straight.

When I was in school a trend got started by a couple few girls. They used cafeteria spoons and a quarter, tapping the edge with the spoon, eventually making a silver ring. the centers would get so thin they punched them with nails and had the guys at the jewelry store size them which smoothed the inside nicely.

 

Seems after this was going on for a couple few weeks the boy's vice principal noticed students were defacing US currency! to hear him talk you'd think treasury agents would be storming the school any second. so, he did what he always did, forbade making quarter rings. Of course now it was a point of rebellion so instead of 4-6 girls making them the school ws populated with hundreds of girls tapping silver quarters with school spoons.

 

Anyway, beautiful rings Curly and a fun project.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

boy that must have made for a noisy lunch room frosty :)

 

im gonna have to work on this one and see what i can turn out, thanks for sharing this Curly!

boy that must have made for a noisy lunch room frosty :)

 

im gonna have to work on this one and see what i can turn out, thanks for sharing this Curly!

 

Lunchroom, halls, quad, you name it, it was ticky tack everywhere you went. Drove the boy's VP nuts too.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

"Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.  This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent."

 

From the US treasury website.

indeed, but when was that section actually enacted?  i sense that frosty graduated many moons ago :)

 

also, curly, did you anneal it periodically throughout, or just keep tapping all the way?

Nope just kept on tapping!

 

Frosty, maybe I should try using a spoon next time! Its funny, you think one would want to encourage creativity like that and not try and ban making them.

Nope just kept on tapping!

 

Frosty, maybe I should try using a spoon next time! Its funny, you think one would want to encourage creativity like that and not try and ban making them.

 

You'd think creativity is a good thing but my jr. high and high schools were the largest, at the time, in Los Angeles county. About 5-6k kids, pumped on hormones and the late 60's blooming drug culture. this was the day when schools were pretty much completely turned over to union bureaucrats. I was permanently scarred mathematically with "The NEW Math."

 

But, no the bureaucrat boy's VP, girl's VP, principals, etc. did NOT want creative thought encouraged, little sheep was their dream. We actually got speeches from them about being good cooperative kids, if we didn't fit the mold we'd never amount to anything. I'm sure he was an okay guy doing a tough job the best he could but the kids didn't like him much so anything we could to to irritate him was a popular fad soon as the grapevine got word around.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

That is cool and a very fine job. 

Just came across these photos of a ring I made last year so thought I would post it up here.

 

Made from a 1950 British halfpenny. I am sure all of you clever folks on here know how they are made (I am sure some have even been posted up here before) but it took me a few days to work it out and make it!

 

IMG_3093.jpgIMG_3088.jpg

 

That is a half crown I believe, not a half penny, (72 times its halfpenny value) slightly different material and thickness, but an excellent piece nevertheless.

 

The halfpenny made a nice ring if you pushed it through a steel plate with the right size hole and punch, as the galleon was left intact on a disc, the outer edge turned into an open cylinder, and the solder the galleon/disc on to form a feature on the front.

Here you go a video that shows the whole process.

My Grandfather told me about making rings from Silver US coins when he was a Marine in WWII---used a spoon and lots of time!

looks like its going to be a long evening :-D I still cant imagine going at it with a spoon O.o

I have a couple of these still around. A TON of work. The coin you use is critical- have to use one that will have the lettering show when finished.

 

There is no law against defacing US Currency. The laws about our currency deal with CHANGING the denomination to defraud someone. Our government would LOVE to have all out currency taken out of circulation so they could print more.

 

Good job on the ring and on your patience!

 

Dave

Back in the days of specie it was also about clipping or filing just a bit off a bunch of gold or silver coins---why coins now have reeded edges and raised borders---to show if they had been altered.

 

As long as you are not trying to use the modified coin as money the US government is OK with you.

this process is a monumental PITA! I got impatient and started swinging too hard and heavy at times so the coin ended up getting kind of warped into a slight saddle.  didn't get to finish piercing the center out so still to be concluded.  I have a couple of variations rattling around in my brain that I would like to commit to copper in the near future too :)

Back in the day of silver coins it was easier to use a stainless steel spoon for the task. I made one in the Navy, standing watch gets pretty boring down in the boiler room during the mid watch and there is so much noise what's little more, you couldn't even hear the the spoon strike what with all the forced draft blowers, steam driven fire pumps, boilers firing, it was quite a cacophonous situation so what was the sound of a spoon striking a coin but a little diversion.

That is a half crown I believe, not a half penny, (72 times its halfpenny value) slightly different material and thickness, but an excellent piece nevertheless.

 

The halfpenny made a nice ring if you pushed it through a steel plate with the right size hole and punch, as the galleon was left intact on a disc, the outer edge turned into an open cylinder, and the solder the galleon/disc on to form a feature on the front.

 

 

Thanks John, you are correct. It is indeed a half crown.

 

Chinobi, it is certainly something you cannot rush! In fact I remember after 5mins of tapping having to use a micrometer to see if there had been much upset. But it gets there in the end.

Thanks for this, been doing it on the rainy days around here. Made one out of a quarter and all my kids wanted one.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely give it a try :)!!!