now this is truely going beyond the boundries of hacking. to even conjure up this kind of hack is not only awesome, but technically illegal because you can’t destroy money here in the USA. Well if you’re willing to risk breaking that law (we sure are) and you’ve got a silver dollar handy (or a quarter works we’ve gotten emails about). you just basically, bend the coin inward, polish the outside like a ring, then hollow out the inside to fit your finger.
thanks [AJ] and to all readers for letting us know how to identify currency <3
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!
Absolutely brilliant. I had pondered this some time back, but NEVER thought of using a silver quarter. Guess I’m breaking into the coin collection.
heh all I got to say
Thee precioussssssss
I saw this on Jenga Jam a couple days ago. This is a sweet hack. However, that is most definetly a $.50 piece, not a quarter. You’d have to have really small fingers to use a quarter…
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.
you lose points for posting this article being people did this hundreds of years ago, and it’s not anywhere related to hacking (granted, you did mention that in the article).
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.
It’s legal to modify a coin so long as you don’t try to sell it as anything other than modified:
http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.shtml#q13
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 ?
you know, it’s really easy to settle this:
http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/index.cfm?action=FAQSearchResult
Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who
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)
I bought one of these from a guy in New Zealand 4 years ago.
If you plan to do this bear in mind the cool writing or picture still visible on the inside will rub off eventually.
Redbeard wrote: 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.
My ring is made of a nickel coin, I think. The writing was still very visible at first but it’s all gone now, rubbed down. Plus, I think because it was nickel it happened to leave a green residue on my thumb from time to time…
Still a cool and unique gift though.
this is great!! i’m definitely going to try this!! thanks!!
This is harder than it looks. I wasted 26 cents already!
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/992593/quarter.jpg
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.
how did he get it so wide? as coins are only 1/16th inch thick at best
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!
This is pretty cool. Has anyone here tried it with a golden dollar? (the one with Saquajawea on it)
it not a quarter it is a silver dollar
Awesome, now that’s a hack for the girl friend ;) lol
“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.
It is a Silver dollar. You can see JFK on it, not
washington. Nice one.
And about the CVS mod, its been on here already, in the form of the
Original Dakota model.
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.
This goes way back. It was very popular among NAVY sailors so they’d have plenty of rings available for shore leaves. There was ample time between ports to make these rings.
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.
There are Kennedy silver dollars.
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**??
Tried this with a Sacagawea dollar. Sizes at a size
12 on ring mandrel. Took 3 days with a soft mallet
hammer and improvised ring mandrel!!
I made one out of a quarter today… was a much better use of my time than sitting at the computer all afternoon :)
You can still read the words on mine:
http://www.somedumbsite.com/misc/images/the_one_ring/ring.jpg
It only (barely) fits on my pinky finger though, so I hope to find a half dollar or something that’s bigger and made completely of silver and make another.
gummyavenger: nice job, it’s cool to see people actually taking these hacks for a run
How do you know whether or not a half dollar is silver? I have 2 sitting here one a 2000 and one a 1991.
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
In 1965 coins were switched to a cupro-nickle construct. anything 1964 and back is silver.
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?
How do you know whether or not a half dollar is silver? I have 2 sitting here one a 2000 and one a 1991.
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!
For those wondering, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and silver dollars were made of 90% silver up through 1964. The half dollars (and only the half dollars) were 40% silver from 1965 through 1970. After silver, these coins are all a copper-nickel combo.
FWIW, nickels were 35% silver from 1942-1945 in order to have more nickel for the war. It takes copper and nickel to make brass (shells for ammunition and artillery), which is why they also made steel pennies back then.
One other tidbit of trivia- dimes, quarters, and halves are made of proportional amounts of metal so that a dollar’s worth of each has the same amount of silver, but a silver dollar has a little more than that.
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.
This is a very cool hack. It might not be original or technical … but it’s a great challenge and as someone earlier said, it gets you away from the computer, which is always a good thing.
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.
actually i don’t think destroying coins is illegal because of all those machines at truck stops where you put in 51 cents and you turn the crank and it flattens the penny.
Thanks, marty allred! I get 1964 nickels all the time! wahoo!
I just finished mine out of a quarter, but it barely fits on my pinky finger, and I am afraid that it will turn my finger colors. This is why Im not sure if a nickel would be large enough theblunderbuss.
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.
Yo – amalawyers out there: US Code – the money is YOURS if you get it legit, and the only tampering/destruction law is from the imfamous year of the $5 nickel (I forget when in 1800s, the nickel and the quarter-Eagle gold piece looked almost the same, were almost the same size, and someone at the mint left off the word “cents” from the cheap coin. Any idea how easy it is to goldp-plate anything?
So the law was made to prohibit alteration of US coinage and currency to appear to increase its value – note the roadside machines that for 26 cents deliver you your penny back stamped with some logo, or stretched into an oblong? Or the companies selling “hand enamled UScoins in honor or memory of whatever they cn think of (though the last few weeks have been devoted to selling Pope souveniers, mostly the kind one could get free for the asking at any proper church at highly inflated prices)
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
Why the hell would you want to do this? To be cool? Creative? Fun?
all of the above… btw tnx for the tut. i made one out of a canadian 25c bearly fits me but its cool…
Took me about 4 hours and I made a ring out of a newer 50 cent piece. It has a bunch of dings in it ,but it’s definately a cool ring. It turned out ok for my first time. I already bought a 90% silver 50 cent piece on ebay, gonna make a wedding ring for my wife, and one for myself eventually. I asked some jeweler about this and had no idea, thought i was pretty cool though.
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.
The site is offline for now, but here’s a cache of it… http://web.archive.org/web/20040314025022/http://members.tripod.com/dlclark/coinring.htm