While I was unpacking a few boxes of childhood treasures that came from my bedroom at my parents’ house, I came across my souvenir penny collection, along with my American coin collection and some foreign money left over from trips to Europe. I laid them all out where I could see them so I’d remember to think about what to do with them (out of sight, out of mind!). With the foreign coins, I made magnets, but the souvenir coins seemed wrong for magnets. So they sat there for a few months while I considered my options.
Then one day, I came across an idea on Pinterest (click HERE), which was a souvenir bracelet for sale in a shop on Etsy. I liked the idea of a bracelet but didn’t like being limited to using only 5 or 6 pennies, so I decided to make my bracelet into a charm bracelet so that I could include all of my pennies if I wanted to, and even add pennies from future trips.
So I gathered the following supplies and sat down to create the bracelet:
So I gathered the following supplies and sat down to create the bracelet:
- Souvenir penny collection
- copper-plated chain, jump rings, and lobster clasp
- jewelry pliers
- an awl
- hammer
- scrap piece of plywood
I began by selecting 10 pennies to use and took them outside with the awl, hammer, and scrap of plywood to pierce them.
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| I began by putting the first penny on the scrap of plywood, rested the awl where I wanted the hole to be, and hammered 3-4 times. |
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| Close-up of the result of the hammering |
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| I then flipped the coin over and hammered down the sharp edges. |
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| …then put the awl in the existing hole to hammer through from the wrong side to make sure the hole stayed open… |
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| …and flipped the penny back over to the front side and smashed down the sharp edges one more time. |
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| The 10 finished products! |
After all the pennies had been pierced, I added a jump ring to each and laid them all out side by side to arrange them the way I wanted.
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| Pennies, chain, and jump rings |
I went with a setup of one penny per large loop on the chain, which leaves 3 loops for additional pennies, unless I want to go in and double up in the future. We shall see!
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| I determined where to place the pennies by putting on the bracelet and judging how long I wanted the tail to be. |
After adding all the pennies, all that was left to do was try on and photograph the final product!  |
| Finished product, resting on a necklace display neck. |
It’s a neat way to display and use the cheapest (and probably easiest to lose) souvenir you can find!
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| My best attempt at photographing my own hand in a somewhat natural position. |
Time: 2 hours
Cost: Under $5 (chain- $2.50, jump rings- $2, pennies- souvenirs…technically $.51 each)