how to make a coin rings

5/19/2018 How to Make a Coin Rings

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Coin Ring CraftingCoin Ring Crafting

By John Bortscher

Several years ago I saw aphoto of a coin ring, which some-one had found while metal detect-ing. I was intrigued and won-

dered how it was made, but itwasnt until recently that I finallyfigured out how to make one. Imsure that many of you have beenfascinated by them, too; I thoughtthat I would share my experiencesand explain how you can easilymake a coin ring of your own.

Which coin should you use?Copper, silver, brass coins are the

easiest to work with. Nickel istoo hard and may also pose healthrisks. As a general rule,Washington quarters make a size6-1/2 or 7; half dollars make asize 12. A Mercury dime or aWheat cent will make a size 1, aperfect baby ring! Foreign coinsare a lot of fun to use, too, andmost coin shops have bins full at

a bargain price. Experiment, becreative, and youll be amazed bywhat you can achieve.

A minimum number of toolsare required to craft a coin ring.An electric drill and a rotary toolare a must, and vise grips are a

good choice for holding the coin.Just be sure to put some leather inthe jaws to prevent scratching thecoin. Youll also need a heavypiece of metal to use as an anvil (Iuse a trailer hitch), and a ringmandrel or the tapered end of apinch bar to hold the ring forsome final processing. Otheressentials include a set of drills, a

1/4" bolt (or smaller diameter)about 3" long, assorted grits ofsandpaper, some jewelers rouge,a large stainless steel spoon orsmall machinists hammer, and abit of patience.

OK, lets begin. First, grabthe coin between your thumb andpointer finger, set it on the steelanvil, and start tapping the edge

of the coin. Tap on the very top ofthe coin. After giving it 2-3 taps,slightly rotate the coin about 1/8".

The idea is to widen the coinaround the edge evenly, with thelettering close to the edge e.g.,IN GOD WE TRUST beingslowly pushed to the underside ofthe coin, from its original positionto the sides. This is going to takeyou 3-5 hours or more, dependingon the size of the coin and howhard you are hitting it with thespoon or hammer. If you hit thecoin too hard, it will warp, andfurther tapping will be almostimpossible from that point on; so,take your time. This is wherepatience is a virtue!

When you have finally got thelettering to the underside of the

coin, you must drill a hole in thecenter. The hole must be bigenough to push a bolt through.The coin will be mounted on thebolt with a washer on either side,and then tightened with two nuts,one on either side. The washersand bolts must be small enough toallow you to sand the outside ofthe coin. Attach the washers and

nuts to the bolt and tighten thenuts.

Insert the open end of the boltinto the drill chuck and tighten.You now have a small, portablelathe. Put it in reverse, if youhave that option on your drill.Turn the power on, and start thesanding process. Use a heaviergrit or gauge paper, and sand out

all of the dents from the tapping.Finish with a very light grit, usingwater on the sandpaper. Whenthe outside of the ring is assmooth as you can get it, putsome jewelers rouge on a smallpiece of cloth and polish the out-side of the coin. You can apply afair amount of pressure, as thisspeeds up the polishing process.

When you have a satisfactoryshine, stop and carefully removethe nuts and washers from the

The design of this Canadian large cent makes it an ideal choice for a double-sided coin ring. Its a cinch to determine a coins exact center with the aid of aneasily assembled plastic jig.

WESTERN & EASTERN TREASURES 59

Reprinted from Western & Eastern Treasuresmagazine, May 2005. www.treasurenet.com


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bolt, removing the coin. Try notto scratch it!You now have to put the coin

in the vise grips, with leatheraround the edges to protect theshiny finish. Start increasing thesize of the hole by using a drillbit, one bit size at a time. Enlargeit as much as you reasonably canwithout bending the coin in thevise grips. The hole needs to bebig enough to accept a burr bit onthe rotary tool.

You now have to burr out thecenter carefully. You want aneven cut, and for the lettering toremain inside the ring. The coingets really hot! Be careful. I keepa spray bottle nearby and cool thecoin off periodically. Burr closeto the letters on the coin, but leave

a small bit of material as a bufferzone.

Next, put one of those sand-ing drums on the rotary tool andcreate a nice, even ridge on theinside of the ring. Try usinganother, lighter gauge sandpaperto smooth it out even more.

To do the final touchups, firstclean the inside (only) of the ring

with one of those wire brushes onthe rotary machine. Next, get asmall felt buffing wheel, put it on

The point at which the two lines inter-sect indicates the center of the coin.

With the center carefully removed byrepeated drilling and burring, thecoin now resembles a washer.

With the holed coin fitted onto a ringmandrel, the process of repeatedlypounding it with a plastic mallet canbegin.

As the process proceeds, a humblecopper coin is gradually transformedinto a handsome ring youll be proudto give, display, or wear every day.

Final polishing with a felt disk,tripoli, and jewelers rouge gives thering a rich, lustrous look.

A small sanding drum is used to finishthe inner and outer edges.

Adding leather padding to the jaws ofvise-grip pliers ensures that the coinwill be tightly held without marring orscratching.

60 MAY 2005

the rotary machine, and at a lower

rpm put the felt wheel over somepolishing compound (jewelersrouge). Turn up the rpms on therotary machine when finallytouching the inside of the ring,and begin polishing the inside ofthe ring.

When finished, remove thering and put it on the ring mandrelor other tapered piece of metal

and repolish the outside. Give it afinal bath with a toothbrush andsoap. Dont use toothpaste! To

As with

anything else,

quality improves

with practice; but

if youve followed

these stepscarefully, I think

youll be surprised

and pleased

with even your

first project


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one of the easiest coinsto use, is a Canadianlarge cent. You canfind them in poor con-dition, but still fine forring-making, for lessthan $1 at many coinshops. British pennies

are another good choiceand generally just aseasy to buy. Of course,U.S. large cents workwell, too, but are farmore expensive. Forthis project, Ive pickeda 1916 Canadian largecent, cost 75. Its cop-per, thin, and has a dot-ted circle on the face

which will help meachieve a near-perfectcircle in the center.

Now a word aboutessential tools and sup-plies. In addition to thecoin, youre going toneed a solid metal ring mandrel, aplastic mallet, an electric drillwith various sizes of drill bits, aDremel-type rotary tool with a

burring bit, a small sanding drum,some tripoli compound and jew-elers rouge, a sheet of light gritsandpaper, a vise or vise-grip pli-

remove the little pieces of dirt in

the letters, carefully use a tooth-

pick.OK, its done! Now you can

give it to your spouse or signifi-cant other, and make another one

for the kids, Uncle Jack, AuntyLinda, and of course yourself!

Up for another challenge?Now that youve mastered thebasics of coin ring crafting, heresa unique design technique youmight like to try...

Double-Sided Coin RingsAlthough some of the basic

principles apply, double-sidedcoin rings are made entirely dif-

ferently from those with a pol-ished outer finish. As their nameimplies, they have coin detailsand inscriptions both inside andoutside the band. How do youmake them? The process startswith selecting the right coin.

Choose copper or silvercoins. Brass and bronze will alsowork well. Dont try to use nick-el, however. Its too hard to work

with and will quickly wear outyour tools. Also keep in mindthat for this kind of ring, thinner isbetter. My favorite, and actually

ers, and a spray bottle. Got em?Then lets get started!

The first step is the find thecenter of the coin. To do this, I

made a jig by gluing a ruler overa plastic 90 template. I just setthe coin underneath, draw a pen-cil line over the coin, rotate the

WESTERN & EASTERN TREASURES 61

The original coins designs, dates, and inscriptions can be clearly seen in this display of double-sided rings.


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coin about 90, and draw anotherline. The point where these twolines intersect should be the cen-ter.

Once the center is marked,use a center-punch or somethingsimilar (I use a concrete nail) topunch a hole.

Next, beginning with a very

small size drill bit, drill a holeright through the coin. Move up acouple of bit sizes and drill again,enlarging the hole. Repeat thisstep until the hole is large enoughfor you to insert the burring bit onthe rotary tool.

Note: The coin gets reallyhot too hot to hold! as largerbits are used and the burringbegins. To secure it, I used a pair

of vise-grips with strips of leathertaped in the jaws. You could alsoput the coin in a bench vise, again

padding the jaws. Even then, theheat may become so intense thatthe leather starts to smoke, andthats where the spray bottlecomes in handy. As youre work-ing, periodically spray the coin tokeep it cool. This allows it toremain locked in place in the jawsof the vise-grips or bench vise and

saves time.Continue the burring until thecoin looks like a washer.

Now, pop the coin onto thering mandrel and start poundingthe edges downward not toohard! while slowly spinningthe mandrel. Once you have gonearound 3-4 times, pounding thecoins edges, carefully tap thering farther down on the mandrel.

Again, tap the rings sides, rotat-ing it as you pound.

After another 3-4 revolutions,

tap the ring farther down on themandrel once again. You willreach a point at which the coincannot be flattened any more.

So far, so good... but payclose attention to this next part.The instructions I am about togive are very important.

Take the ring off the mandrel(you may have to tap it) andflip itover on the mandrel the other

way.You must start pounding the

ring farther down on the mandrel,increasing its inside diameter.Now, start pounding the sides ofthe ring, trying to get the outsideportion of the ring closer to the

mandrel. You will probably haveto hit the ring a lot harder now,slowly rotating it as you pound.

As before, you must poundthe ring farther down the mandrel,and then again start pounding thesides of the ring. The inner diam-eter must increase in size to com-pensate for the larger outsidediameter, so that it will eventuallylose its cone shape.

Continue this cycle until thering is no longer conical butbegins to look like a ring.

Now take the ring and rub it,flat, in circles on a sheet of light-grit sandpaper. Flip it over and dothe same on the other side.Continue until it looks good.

Next, finish the inside/outsideedges with a small sanding drum.

Finally, using a felt disk, pol-ish the ring first with tripoli com-pound and then with jewelersrouge for a gleaming, profession-al finish.

As with anything else, qualityimproves with practice; but ifyouve followed these steps care-fully, I think youll be surprisedand pleased with even your firstproject and can proudly say, I

made it myself!Has a nice ring to it, dont you

think?

Your coinshooting finds can be transformed into elegant rings like these. Wearthem with pride or give them to family and friends a great way to share your

hobby!

62 MAY 2005

how to make a coin rings

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