Turn Foreign Coins Into Cool Fridge Magnets!

Intro: Turn Foreign Coins Into Cool Fridge Magnets!

Using foreign coins acquired from eBay, I'll show you how to create some cool fridge magnets.

STEP 1: Collect Your Materials!

It's time to collect your materials!

The first step in creating a foreign coin fridge magnet is to acquire coins of a foreign (to you) nature. I accomplished this through eBay (coin search. I spent about $15 after shipping on a lot of 50+ coins.

You'll also need magnets and some type of adhesive to affix the magnets to the coin. I picked up some typical round magnets from the craft section in Wal*Mart. I also grabbed some Aleene's Tacky Glue. I chose the clear to make it easier to cover up my mistakes :).

STEP 2: Cleaning the Coins

Step 1.5: Waiting for the coins to arrive.

Step 2: Cleaning:

The first step to cleaning the coins is to let them soak in mildly soapy water. I left mine in a bowl with just a little generic dish soap overnight. This helped to free up a lot of the dirt and gunk on the coins. I dried them using a standard (and old) towel.

The next step is to get the coins shiny and new-looking again. After doing some research, I decided on the well-known Taco Bell hot sauce method. This, of course, required me to eat food from Taco Bell.

While watching a movie to pass the time, each coin sat in a little bowl of the hot sauce for approximately 3-4 minutes. After that, I pulled them out, rubbed them a bit, and then dipped them into a bowl of water and dried them off with a paper towel.

Some of the coins came out better than others, but they all looked much cleaner. I waited until they were all clean before deciding which ones were clean/shiny/neat enough to be magnets.

STEP 3: Magnet Affixation!

Take your newly cleaned and dried coins and pick out the ones you want to magnetize.

After picking out the coins, be sure to set the coins with the side you want to see facing down. It would suck to accidentally glue the magnet to the good-looking side.

Take your bottle of glue (or other chosen adhesive) and put just a small amount on the back of the coin. Too much and you'll just waste and make a mess. I found that a small drop works the best (see the second picture). You want just enough to fill in the surface underneath the magnet and have a little ridge around the magnet.

Take the magnet and slowly push down onto the coin. Make sure the magnet stays centered on the back of the coin. Once you've put the magnet on there, move on to the next coin.

Personally, I haven't had a problem with the glue I used yet. The magnets have been in use on the fridge for about 4 months now, and I haven't lost any coins yet. The only possible change I might make next time is to rough up the glued edge of the magnet (if possible) to help make the bond to the coin stronger.

STEP 4: Drying

After finishing all the coins, I placed them between two sheets of standard printer paper (to catch any leaking glue) and put a whole bunch of heavy books on top of them. I let them dry for about 14 hours to make sure they were good and secure.

STEP 5: Enjoy!

Stick them on your fridge, give them to your friends.

Sorry, this is the best picture I could get of them on my fridge.

Comments

[weasel999]

i think the 3 coin in the third colon is a Ukrainian 5 kop. Kinda like 5 cents

[Flumpkins]

Neat! I just started collecting coins. Well, I have for like 6 years but i just started getting serious about it. Look at my forums if you wanna see what I have. Btw, 5/5 +Added to faves

[steven07]

If you have Euro coins or the new New Zealand coins they are a steel alloy (i.e. ferrous, I.e. able to be picked up with magnets) therefore you wont need any glue, thats how the coins are stuck to my fridge. I presume there are heaps of coins that are made from ferrous materials.

[hcold]

Are the New Zealand ones now? Do you mean the "new" coins released 2006? Because the new ten-cent piece is made from copper, though the steel alloy might explain why the old 50 cent pieces are so heavy...along with their size.

[steven07]

Yes the ones that were released in 2006 i hear are ferrous, since they are alloyed they may look like copper but still contain enough steel The old heavier coins Are a non ferrous alloy since they are the same as the ones we have here in Australia ( i think that the old NZ coins used to be made in the Australian mint for NZ of the same metal). actually just stick a magnet to each coin and see what happens , since i have no New Zealand coins i just don't know.

[Braeburn]

there ate many like that of mine, but are mainly old: canada, dennmark, brazil, germany, austria.

[nepheron]

how about you put the coins in an envelope..... and mail them to me!!!!!

[Ducky Boy]

Quite simple, but nice looking. Nice :D

[tharley]

Wow! Awesome idea.

[CMPalmer]

Well, this is just a ditto comment, but...

This is a great and simple idea. I can't believe I never thought of it. We have quite a few foreign coins that we kept as "souvenirs" that have been sitting in a drawer. I dug them out last night and used E-2000 craft glue to attach some small rare earth magnets to them. Using the small magnets centered on the back of the coin lets you tilt them to remove them easily and the rare earth magnets really stick to the fridge.

[joejoerowley]

Oh my god. I did this last night. I took pictures and every thing. Man I feel stupid for not posting it earlier. Great instructable.

[josh92176]

Nice, simple but effective

[mylilsin]

that is such a great idea!!! I have a bunch of coins from a trip I took to Amsterdam and they are just sitting in a jar. Now I can proudly display them!!! Great idea & great pictures