Actually, it is not illegal to destroy money. It is illegal to alter money for the purpose of misrepresenting it as more money. Making this ring is not illegal. Altering a $5 bill to look like a $20 bill is illegal. So as long as you don’t try to pass this off as legal tender you should be OK.

So feel free to give it a try. Also, I think the coin used is a kennedy half dollar from the 60s because they contained much more silver then. If you try it with a regular quarter, post here cause I’d like to know how well it comes out!

heh all I got to say

Thee precioussssssss

i stumbled accross this page a few days ago and immediatly got to work. i’ve made 2 coin rings so far out of a couple of coins from brazil (i chose them because of their size..about the size of a half dollar which is what the guy uses on the web page)

tips for those who want to do this:

1. it took me about an hour of good hard hitting on the coin to produce the size “ring” i wanted. (took a coin about the diameter of a half dollar to the diameter of a nickel)

2. if you make your ring out of any coin other than a silver coin don’t expect to wear it for long periods of time. most other coins are comprised of nickel and copper which will leave a colored ring on your skin (or maybe even a rash)

3. when he says that the coin will get jammed onto the drill bit while you’re drilling through it, don’t worry if it doesn’t. go to lowes or some other hardware store that carries dremel bits. buy one of the bits ment to be used for the sandpaper rings. i’ll have a shaft, 2 small washers, and a screw. simply attach the ring w/ hole to the bit and place into a drill.

5. last thing (i think). since he used a silver half dollar i can only assume that’s the reason you’re still able to read “the united states…” stuff on the inside of the ring. since silver is softer than nickel (please correct me if i’m wrong) it’s easier to hammer into the shape you want and it doesn’t fold as flat as the nickel coin will.

ps. if you do use a coin other than a silver one then don’t bother w/ the spoon. go straight to a normal sized hammer.

Quote: “Actually, it is not illegal to destroy money. It is illegal to alter money for the purpose of misrepresenting it as more money. Making this ring is not illegal. Altering a $5 bill to look like a $20 bill is illegal. So as long as you don’t try to pass this off as legal tender you should be OK.”

No, money is considered property of the U.S. government and it would be a federal crime to destroy it, modify it, or permanently alter it in any way.

Coinage is the property of the bearer. You can mutilate it any which way you desire.

However, paper money is the property of the US Govt since it is only a document entitling you to a monetary value. Altering it is technically illegal, but, when was the last time you heard of someone doing time for stamping “WHERE’S GEORGE?” on a $1 ?

It’s not illegal to deface money, it’s illegal to attempt to spend defaced money, How else do you think it’s possible for tourist sites to have those penny smashing machines? Those devices would be illegal if it were illegal to deface money. (which they aren’t in the US)

this is great!! i’m definitely going to try this!! thanks!!

God what an ugly ring. I submitted a much better hack days ago (http://vickers.homedns.org/PV2mods.htm), and we get crap like this?? I’m not usualy on to bitch and whine, but damn, this sucked.

Since I had nothing better to today I decieded to give this a try, and guess what? I’m wearing a funky quarter bling ring right now. My first try and it worked out just fine!

it not a quarter it is a silver dollar

“This is pretty cool. Has anyone here tried it with a golden dollar? (the one with Saquajawea on it)”

I wouldnt bother with anything other than a high silver content coin..

The golden dollar is obviously not gold, probably some other hard metal…

Too much work, unless the metal is nice and soft.

Well let me say that I have been wearing my Grandfathers Wedding ring that he had made from a silver half dollar when he was 16.
He was married to my Grandmother for 75 years and wore it for another 6 years after she had died.
In the course of his life 91 years he had made three as his fingers got bigger.
I have been married and wearing mine for the last 17 years.
So as I look at it thank God I found the perfect person to marry and I have enough rings to last me the next 75 years, after that I guess I’m going to have to make my own.
And I for one am very happy to have the instructions to do it when I will need to.

It’s a 50 cent piece, not a quarter nor a silver dollar. You can clearly see Kennedy’s head in the picture where the hole is being drilled out.

1) The Smithsonian has one of those penny-mashing machines. I’m serious. It’s near the food court in the American History Museum. I got a train stamped on mine.

2) Yeah, that’s a 50-cent piece. Eisenhower dollars have a bell on the tails side.

3)I should try this with a Sacagawea dollar, even though it wouldn’t fit my fingers at ALL (they’re fat). I bet it’d be pretty, and they aren’t as rare as $.50 pieces are I don’t think.

4) I have a biology teacher named Mike Matthews. No foolin’. He’s more into basketball and Jesus than hacks, though… or **IS HE**??

gummyavenger: nice job, it’s cool to see people actually taking these hacks for a run

i think new coins are those copper/nickel sandwich ones, you need an old one AFAIK like something from the 70′s or possibly 80′s

actually, the almost pure silver coins should be from around the 60′s or earlier. My oldest one is from 1975, and you can clearly see the copper color on the edge.

That quarter ring is cool! wont the nickle and copper turn your fingers colors though?

Awesome! Too bad I just saw a 50 cent piece the other day and didn’t trade a couple quarters for it, I could try this out. I’m sure I’ll run across one again, this is definantely neat!

Great post Marty allred. I knew the 90% silver coins were from the 60′s; I just didn’t know the exact date. A shame I don’t have any.

I saw this on LifeHacker, and thought I’d send it to my mom, who could let my (non-computer literate) dad know.

Not only is my dad a retired tool and die maker (so he likes making stuff with metal) he’s gotten into coin collecting in his retirement.

This is what my mother sent back as a reply:

“Can’t get ahead of the old geezer.

Thanks, marty allred! I get 1964 nickels all the time! wahoo!

I only read the first 15 or so comments so spare me if this has been said already…

coin alteration is legal in the states.

be careful with non-american currency.

i.e. alteration of canadian coins is legal however, alteration or dammaging the image of the queen or any member of the royal family (1/2 the coins out there) IS illegal.

well i tried doing this with a regular quarter was going good until it got crooked like where the outside of the ring part wasnt straight it was all wobbly lol, i used a hammer to make it flat around the edgre since it was mostly nickle well looks like i need to find an old silver 50 cent piece i have one from 1943 but dont want to use it since it was my great grandmas :/ and a quarter from 1954 and same deal with that

all of the above… btw tnx for the tut. i made one out of a canadian 25c bearly fits me but its cool…

wouldn’t your wife have a wedding ring already? this seems more like a guy’s ring, unless you can make it really thin. (now if you attached a diamond somehow, that would be a wedding ring) heh.

I have copied the data from archive.org to geocites and changed the format just a little.

http://www.geocities.com/ringzingbling/coinring.htm

don’t try this with a quarter… atleast a copper core one. i did and it turns ur finger green.

Mne came out GREAT! I used a 1964 half dollar that’s been sitting around forever. I skipped the spoon crap and used an anvil and a hammer. I used a drill press but didn’t get the bit to “grab” the coin like it said but I had plenty of tools available. I made a sander out of an air pump and some other junk to core out the inside to fit my finger. I ended up making it too big but it fits my index finger fine. The lettering is also still readable! Awesome idea! Here are some pics:

http://asterix299.tripod.com/my_coin_ring/index.album?i=1

Mne came out GREAT! I used a 1964 half dollar that’s been sitting around forever. I skipped the spoon crap and used an anvil and a hammer. I used a drill press but didn’t get the bit to “grab” the coin like it said but I had plenty of tools available. I made a sander out of an air pump and some other junk to core out the inside to fit my finger. I ended up making it too big but it fits my index finger fine. The lettering is also still readable! Awesome idea! Here are some pics:

http://asterix299.tripod.com/my_coin_ring/index.album?i=1

how much is aliberty dollar worth? it was given to me by a friend. i dont think i am going to use it after all.

that coin is not worth $50-75 because it’s only from 2001. by 2020 that coin will be worth a considerable amount more but for now it is worth about $20. Those proof set coins go up in value fast so I would hang on to it. You can get a 1964 half dollar like mine for about $2 on ebay so i would just use one of those. Look at my results! http://asterix299.tripod.com/my_coin_ring/index.album?i=1

Go to ebay and search for a 1964 half dollar. you gan buy 2 for about $2 and a roll of them for about $50-60. basically they have gone up in value since 1964 so they will be a little more than $.50… You probably won’t find a 1964 half dollar at a bank because they are completely out of circulation…

So it has to be those? Not A Canadian Quarter? And Why dose it have to be those?

I found A real one to do it with… Would it go quciker if i heated it? and is a hammer quicker?

I’m considering gold plating my ring, still in construction. My mom bought a gold kit, and I don’t want to see her throw away her gold.

ring completed, i didnt have a lot of the tools (dremal) that they used in the project and ended up hollowing out the center with a round file. but i also had access to a drill press…….heres what it looks like

http://photobucket.com/albums/v353/codekeeper/coin%20ring/

If you decide to do this hack, then track down the original American Quarters (the ones with the eagles on the back). I live in england and its difficult to get a hold of quarters and the special state quarters dont work for this hack because the bronze content is too high and they wont polish very well. So use the originals

w00t.
Quarter ring -> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/Groxx/Deviantart%20Previews/P5120052.jpg and http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/Groxx/Deviantart%20Previews/P5120051.jpg

That’s the third I’ve made, lol. Quarter rings turn out somewhere between about a size 6 and a size 4, depending on how far you go.

I am going to practice the spooning techinique on some pennys first, just to get the feel. That way I won’t lose as much money.

The plans are no longer up. Anyone remember them?

Your going to spoon some pennies? Do you read man? I have a mint 2004 90% silver special edition 50 cent piece…im making a wedding ring for my wife, we went to europe instead of me wasting money on some overpriced piece of jewelry (she Rulez!)

Has anyone done this with a newer quater? i tried it and it looked horrid. Whats a good coin to use thats easily accessable?

I commented on this on my podcast. I am running a contest involving theses silver rings. Anyone interested…check it out: http://www.andrewthetechie.com/podcast/

anyone know when canadian coins were silver?

Canadian coins were silver before 1967.

I just made one of these today, pretty sweet deal, I don’t live in USA so I used a good old Canadian quarter, worked fairly well, one draw back though, it only fits on my ring finger on the left hand.. got some akward stares at the mall today…

no instrucions on link

I WAS IN THE NAVY IN 1967 AND SPENT WEEKS AT SEA..I MADE A RING FROM AN OLD SILVER 50 CENT PIECE AND SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS BELOW DECKS OF THE SHIP POUNDING ON THIS COIN WITH THE BOTTOM OF A HEAVY SOUP SPOON AND YES IT TURNED OUT BEAUTIFUL.. I HAD IT MANY YEARS UNTIL SOME ONE STOLE IT FROM ME.. IT EVEN HAD MY BIRTDAY YEAR INSIDE AS A 1947 HALF DOLLAR..

been making these rings for awhile; just about any coin will do. have even used silver eagles (they make a very large ring, but just cut a section out and silver solder back together to get the size you want). check out forgedunderthemountain.com – has instructions and quarter rings for sale.

idk if its been mentioned but the new state quarters seem to work im doing pretty good on a california quarter for the gf