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Do you have a quarter from 1964 or before? If you do, it is made of silver. You can turn that coin into a nice silver band using a spoon, a drill, and a metal file.
A quarter will yield a small ring, size ~7 or less. You can get a larger size but the ring will be very skinny. If you want a larger size ring, a Kennedy half dollar will work well. Again, anything 1964 and earlier will be silver.
Materials needed:
-Silver quarter
-spoon
-drill
-metal file
Optional but recommended
-Vice grips
-dremel
A quarter will yield a small ring, size ~7 or less. You can get a larger size but the ring will be very skinny. If you want a larger size ring, a Kennedy half dollar will work well. Again, anything 1964 and earlier will be silver.
Materials needed:
-Silver quarter
-spoon
-drill
-metal file
Optional but recommended
-Vice grips
-dremel
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Signing UpStep 1Find a silver quarter
I was lucky enough to find two silver quarters in my change, but unless you are looking, you may not find one. Any quarter from 1964 and earlier should be silver. They are much lighter in color than newer quarters. I've read you can use the the sandwiched coins, but the metal is harder and it wouldn't be a silver ring. You can also buy one at a coin dealer for a couple dollars.
DO NOT buy an expensive silver coin for this, you will be destroying it.
DO NOT buy an expensive silver coin for this, you will be destroying it.
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If you wait to find one in your change, it may take forever. You can buy one but it would probably cost you more than a quarter. One way to get a silver quarter for free is to use a method that coin collectors use called Coin Roll Hunting.
Basically, you go to your bank and withdraw as much money as you can in the form of quarter rolls. Take them home and look through the coins for silver ones. The more rolls you get the better your chances are of finding one. All the regular coins go back in the rolls and you can deposit them back into your account.
Good Luck!
Any of these coins in numismatic condition are too expensive to buy up.
Every one I've ever used was in a basal state(FR-Po grade)
If it was better than that, I'd take it to the coin shop and trade it in for 1oz silver bullion "coins".
They often come with neat/pretty/useful imagery embossed/cast onto one side.
The local collectors store even lets me do trades by weight! :-)
Pawn shops are a great place to go looking for collector grade silver coins. expensive, compared to getting them in change, but if you must buy them...
These come in METAL or PLASTIC. The plastic ones are pretty much good only for checking the size of a ring (this is a tapered cylinder and marked off in ring sizes) or for a fairly lightweight ring you might be able to use it to re-round a bent ring.
For this project tho a METAL ring mandrel would be a godsend. First off it would be just the thing to discover if the ring is the right size for the person you are making it for and you could gauge how big a hole you needed before you got started. The OTHER use is as a round anvil. Helps to get that nice finished look and also if your initial opening was not big enough then you can use the mandrel to help.
Slide the ring on the mandrel and gently tap against the edge---if the edge is smooth and you want to keep it that way but need to stretch it a bit put some masking tape on the edge. Use the small hammer and gently hit it down on the edge forcing the ring down until it is the right size. Flipping the ring a few times will keep the size even. You can also use a soft faced (leather) hammer for this if the silver is soft enough.
I had three of these made a few years back---one for my daughter with one of the birth dates from TWILIGHT on the coin; one for me out of a British coin with my Black Country Great Granny's birth year (1890) and the next one was a real challenge for the guy who did it. (Found him on ebay). My husband has huge hands. Hasn't been able to wear his wedding ring since 1982---we got married in 1981! So when I saw that there was a semi-rare (don't start on me about this it is not THAT kind of rare coin) silver coin that was a last year of mint for the year his recently deceased father was BORN on I had to have one for him. (His dad collected coins) Getting the right size was tough as we had to hide what we were doing while playing around with a set of ring sizers. The guy who made it said it was by far the largest ring he had ever made and was worried about it cracking but it was fine and looks great BUT the cut edge keeps turning a funky black no matter how I polish it.
Now I wear my 1890 BRITISH coin daily never take it off and I wear it with another sterling ring touching it and it DOES NOT TARNISH or get funky.
I can only conclude that British Sterling is or was of much better and higher silver content.
You can also pound out a silver coin to make a nice flat or even rippled surface and attach things with rivets; engrave or acid etch it; or as a long ago fad had it use the design of the coin itself to cut out the insides. Or make your own design and cut it out! See these on ebay and surely other antique jewelry sites as well. Sweetheart necklaces some call them. These are also great for gifts and special mementos if the date on the coin is meaningful. And that way they also have that amazing "coin edge" thing going on.
If you buy a sterling "blank" you will have a pretty blank canvas to work on. If you hunt up your own silver coin you will have that experience as part of the "Back story". Even if you do have to buy the coin with the correct design, size or date on it this makes part of the history of the item. So don't get bogged down in this. And if the zombies DO come---or if Romney gets elected--do you REALLY think one silver quarter is going to make a DIFFERENCE? LOL!!!!
Make a bigger ring and bash them zombies right in the mouth with it! Make SILVER KNUCKLES! Melt down the centers for vampire killing SILVER BULLETS!
I understand what you are saying Sir, but how can one be out of something they do not have or never purchased?
and you are so right....people need to really look at the coinage & maybe even look in to the background of the coinage they wish to destroy BEFORE they destroy it.
just because it has an assessed value of $(fill in the blank) does not mean it's actually worth that, or that you "have" ownership of that value - you only have that value, when you've sold it & pocketed the money.
This means it's inaccurate to say that you just "lost" that value, because you didn't lose it, if you only read about it in the current year's price guide for that particular collectible. All you lose is what you personally paid for it, and any emotional ties you may have to it. That said, for example....I own all 75 issues of the original Sandman comic series,by Neil Gaiman, with #1 signed by all 3 original creators. Price guide-wise, it's estimated to turn a pretty penny. But until I sell it, they're only actually worth cover price, plus the cost if the boards/bags/boxes I bought to protect them. But the emotional cost would be huge - beyond measure - so for me, in that context, they're priceless.
At the end of the day, we all determine what that value is, for ourselves. I'm not posting this to be mean, but as constructive information, as a former professional in the field. The other side of the coin, so to speak. :)
But even if that never happens, consider that fiat currency is designed to lose value; inflation is essential to its function. Precious metals, on the other hand, can be used as a store of value that guards savings against inflation.
So, if you want to make a silver ring, by all means make a silver ring, but understand, as fuhgawz500 pointed out, that your new piece of flare is worth more than just 25¢. Oh, and try to save those filings from when you bore the center, they have value, too.
my mind works like this:
#1) Shelter
#2) food
#3) warmth(as in a fire to get warm by & cook by)
Everything else in this world falls in BEHIND them 3 things.
how can you be out what you never had?
and just because you THINK it's worth $XXX.00 does not mean it is nor does it mean you will get that amount.
As much as I hate to admit it, reality bites, and it usually bites hard.
I hate to be this guy but isn't this against the law?
But regardless very cool
Drilling the hole is the hardest part.
My first one, I drilled a small hole and then bored it out.
Very slow, and, I lost most of the silver (I was going to melt it down)
The second ring, I tried to drill many small holes around the edge.
I broke many bits this way, but , I think it might be the best way
to go about it.
Once I had a small hole drilled, I then used a reamer bit to slowly
open the hole. (diamond coated dental bits)
Like I said earlier very slow, and all I had left of the center
was silver dust.
On the second ring, I drilled a LOT of holes around the edge
of the coin, and then played connect the dots with the reamer.
So I still have the coin center to melt down later.
anybody know if you can use a nickel???