Cufflinks From Old Coins (Bonus: Steampunk)

So I've had this box of old coins laying around for a while now and decided to finally start doing something with them. The direction in which I first began to look is easy to explain: The coins shone, despite their age, brightly and made me think of jewelry. Now was the question what type of jewelry it would become, I'd already sketched different types of bracelets when I came up with the idea of cufflinks. I don't actually wear such things, so I did some research on the basic shapes of these things and came to the conclusion that it could work out. After that I also used some old gears to make cufflinks, because they happened to have end up in the same box as the coins.

Step 1: Materials / Equipment

For this build I used the following equipment:

- A drill press

- A clamp

- A centre punch

- A screwdriver

and the following materials:

- 2 coins

- 2 bolts (about 1,5 cm long)

- 4 nuts

- 2 washers

Step 2: Picking Your Coins

The first thing I did was turn the box of coins upside down and sort them according to their currency. At this point, I also took out the ridiculously big and small coins from the stack. I ended up choosing the Greek Drachme, because I liked the atomic model it had, even though I ended up using the heads side. I chose to use the same two coins, but you could also use two different coins, or the same coin, but one with heads up and the other with tails up.

Step 3: Drilling the Holes

Next up, I clamped the coins and drilled the holes with a drillpress. At this point, I should have realised that maybe I should adjust the size of the drillbit, to match the bolts that I had, but I just randomly grabbed a drillbit that seemed like a nice size. I advise you to use a centre punch as the drill will slip if you try to drill without one and that might damage the coin's print.

Step 4: Attaching the Bolt

Finally, I grabbed a bolt, two nuts and a washer and put it together. As I said earlier, I hadn't paid any attention to the size of the drill bit, so it surprised me to find out that it fit perfectly. The effective length of the bolt will only have to go through two layers of cloth, so 1 cm will be enough for it to function properly. It should be noted that you have to use a washer about the size of a normal button, as it will be your crossbar. To attach the bolt to the coin, you can either screw it in like I did, or glue it with whatever glue you'd like, as long as it'll last.

Step 5: The Final Product

And BOOM, you're done, you've just made yourself something that you'll probably never wear, but will still be proud of. So go put those things in a box, only to forget about it that one time when you do need cufflinks!

Bonus: After I had made the coin cufflinks, I did the same with an old set of gears I had laying around. Although the colours of the bolt and gear don't match, I still like the way they look when worn.