The Penny Battery

by Tool Using Animal

39K60107

Intro: The Penny Battery

This is a derivation of brenn10's battery based on a comment by westfw, mainly because I wanted to see if it would work.

Either watch a lame video, of continue reading.

STEP 1: Wacha Wacha Gonna Need?

sandpaper
post 1982 pennies
wire & solder
soldering iron
cardboard
lemon juice
led

STEP 2: Prep the Pennies

Sand one face off each penny to expose the zinc core. Using 220 grit and holding in my fingers, it took about 45 secs of sanding to do each penny.

Alternately I tried both belt sander and disk sander, excellent ways to burn your fingers, but not appreciably faster.


STEP 3: The Electrolyte

Cut up some cardboard from the back of a notebook and soak it in lemon juice, then blot dry.


STEP 4: Assemble

pick out two pennies and solder leads to one face on each of them, one with the lead on the copper face, the other with it on the zinc face.

Now start stacking coins and cardboard, with all the coins copper side up, stack them with a peice of soaked cardboard between, secure with a rubber band and attach the leads to a low current electrical device, the copper side is the positive. And Tool said "Let there be light".

102 Comments

qz9090 16 years ago

For those of you who do not know, defacing US currency is against the law.

Tool Using Animal 16 years ago

Everything is illegal, if the gov't has nothing better than prosecute me over 11 cents, well, I'll pay the hundred dollar fine, after they spend thousands convicting me. Also, since I only removed one face of the coin you could argue that is is still identifiable and there for does not fall under the defacement statute.

Tool Using Animal 16 years ago

And further looking shows that "fraud" must be involved, since I'm not passing off this currency as any other currency the bar is not met.

qz9090 15 years ago

Any US currency, regardless of its composition (paper or metal), is the property of the US Government i.e. you DO NOT OWN IT. Just because you are not spending it does not mean you own it. Defacing that currency is against the law. Sanding down a coin is considered "defacing", therefore it is illegal. This law is the same in many countries, i.e. not just in the US.

Tool Using Animal 15 years ago

You are still wrong. Defacing money with the INTENT to render it unsuitable for circulation is illegal, however, my intent was to make a battery.

Matthew Yang 2 years ago

Yeah, right. It isn't illegal to deface a penny for making a battery.

JohnJY 14 years ago

"however, my intent was to make a battery."
Fifteen miles from an army base, sleeping on top of a strangers roof, my friend wearing a hat with a Communist star and all I could say was: "Honest officer, we just picked a random place to go!"
I love a good excuse!

make things 14 years ago

Wait I thought that the U.S. people were the ones who run the gov. so basically it is our money. So they wouldn't exist without the people. It's in the Constitution that the gov. is ran by the people. Still people don't really care.

MillenniumMan 15 years ago

It's actualy the property of the federal reserve, and not the federal government. The F.R. is an independent corporation that has been given legal lease to print and stamp bills and coins. They are allowd to do so as a contractural arrangement with the United States government. As long as they have some asset to back up what they print (which they no longer do) then by law, they are allowed to print up all the bils they want. Coupons are also considered money. Put out by the company that makes a product. The customer exchanges this coupon for a certain amounts of face value off the purchased product, then the company reimburses the store that accepted the coupon with promisary notes printed by the federal reserve (greenbacks), who in turn are supposed to reimburse said notes for gold or silver (no longer done since we've been off the gold standard for several decades and have been trapped by the notion that dollar bills are worth something) Sooooo.... lemon juice, huh?

Hawaii00000 15 years ago

Sure but the thousands they spend convicting you is your tax money. Your 11 cent battery just cost... lets see 11 cents+$100 fine+thousands of your tax money= a whole lot of $$$$$ I guess by now your trying to figure out the point behind it and here it is. Give it to me!!

Tool Using Animal 15 years ago

Your cunning plan overlooks one small detail, I'm an unemployed student, therefore, I pay no taxes and have no money. ;-)

churchman 13 years ago

Indeed, I smash pennyswhenever need to, I don't care if the govermentdosen't like it, IF they don't like it they can gulp it down!! I have powered models of citys in the future with JUST pennys And also as a child you can clam that you don't know law(and it will not be a lie) Or els theyed let children run rules over america.

MillenniumMan 15 years ago

Of course you don't, because you would have just sanded down the last eleven cents you had ;p

duckythescientist 15 years ago

I believe it is only illegal if the defacement increases the value of the currency.

MillenniumMan 15 years ago

You're forgetting, the modern penny with the cost of copper and nickle as it is, is more than the face value of a penny itself. 1 penny= 1.4 cents in material and .02 cents in labor.

So by sanding it down, and then using them as a battery, he's already increased their value seven fold :) Federal Reserve is gonna hunt him down and murder him in his bed for this one...

KIMBONGCHILL 13 years ago

oh no, let all run for the hills. NOBODY CARES!
More Comments