A friend recently asked if I could stamp a design on a dime for her. She wanted to have a fun and unique memory of her 10 year wedding anniversary. I had never done this before so I went home and I got out a few coins and I started stamping on them to see how difficult it would be. I found the most challenging part to this was making sure the letters lined up on the coin as the coin would not stay put even under my tape ruler. I was able to come up with some ways to do this and was quite happy with the results.
After I stamped on some practice coins I got to thinking…is this illegal? I started doing some research on this and it turns out that you can stamp on coins and turn them into jewelry and souvenirs as long as you do not pass them off as currency. I am sure many of you have seen the penny smashing machines at tourist locations/amusement parks around the US, if not then the basic idea is that you insert a penny into a machine and you select the design you wanted engraved onto the penny and then you crank the handle and the end result is a smashed penny in an oval shape with the selected design engraved/stamped onto it. These make great inexpensive souvenirs. I have made several of these over the years and really enjoy having these. I also reached out to the folks at my local bank to get their input on this and they confirmed this as well.
Since my first coin project I have created a few other pieces that have turned out great. They are gifts so I cannot share the details at this time but watch the Facebook page for some updated pictures as I am able to share 🙂