Old Coins & Notes

August 11, 2009 3:13 PM

what can I do/make with foreign coins and banknotes?

over the years of travel, I've acquired quite a bit of foreign banknotes and coins (the kind that you stuff in the odd place when leaving). I doubt any of them are valuable as money, but I would like to make something out of them - any ideas?

posted by youchirren to media & arts (8 comments total)

You could use the coins as buttons!
posted by zsazsa at 3:17 PM on August 11

I have a charm bracelet where all the "charms" are coins. A jeweler drilled small holes in each coin and attached a jump ring.
posted by kimdog at 3:25 PM on August 11

This is more a "do" than a "make"... I similarly have a lot of wrong money, and I like to include it in payments at shops - ideally sandwiched in a bunch of correct bills, to provide a little WTF levity with the salespeople. "You don't accept Korean Won here?!"

You can also just leave it in odd places, for strangers to have their own little WTF moments after you're gone.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:06 PM on August 11

I have a pair of cufflinks made from British shilling coins from the 1950's. Whoever made them "dished" them slightly, then soldered the link part to the concave side.

This guy built a water-cooled computer processor heat sink starting with a sterling silver coin. Silver conducts heat really well. Granted, he was a master goldsmith for Tiffany's, so not everyone has his metalworking skill.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:02 PM on August 11

Again, a 'do' not a 'make': We use it as board game / friendly poker money. Value is whatever number it says on it.
posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 5:18 PM on August 11

You can embed coins in concrete to add a funky vibe to an otherwise prosaic patch.
posted by Tube at 7:26 PM on August 11

craftzine had a neat entry about mod-podging newsprint and vintage stamps onto shoes - a pair of currency flats would be pretty sweet.
posted by chickadee at 8:12 PM on August 11

You could do like the scene in Empire Records (good lord I can't believe I'm admitting I saw that film) where the guy is gluing--quarters?--to the floor. Even if you don't want to go with a floor motif, or don't have enough coins to make that worthwhile, you could still do, say a cabinet door, or rim a mirror, put them on a desk surface and put glass overlay on them, etc.
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 12:44 AM on August 12