Turn circulated US silver into buttons (great title or what).. who knows of a place doing this, or who here has the right tools to do it for me? Wouldn't want the kind of button with holes through it, of course, but to have the loop soldered or welded onto the reverse.. Actually I have some solder, I may try it out when my bag o' silver arrives. I'm not sure it will look good, just toying with the idea. Maybe on the right garment it would be passable. Maybe walker reverses on a heavy coat, or merc obverses on a shirt. Tips? Hate mail?
Well I am sure you will get hate mail. Me, they are your coins and you can do as you please. I say get the airtites with that little loop at the top. Then you could sew it to the coat and not hurt the poor defenseless little coins. That almost sounds humane.
I cringe to mention that idea, but the fact is that the coins I would use would otherwise spend their time in bullion bags until the end of the solar system. I think to have a chance at pulling this off, form would have to follow function. If they don't physically serve as buttons, they're just weird baubles hanging off of clothing.
No-date Buffalo Nickels are very popular with people who make belts and hat bands. They typically bend the reverse (buffalo side) out (convex).
Yeah - but what nice baubles. As a matter of fact you could sew them all over the coat and people would say = Look there goes invictus and his coat of amazing coins. Prophetic.
You know, when you put it that way, I would rather see them on a shirt than in a melting pot or in the bottom of a silver junk bin.
If you solder loops to the back to use them as actual buttons be sure to use silver solder and not the lead/tin solder used for electronics. The lead/tin type does not have enough strength for that purpose. Also be warned that the silver solder will NOT melt with a regular soldering gun. The melting point is about three hundred degrees hotter than the melting point for the lead/tin solder.
Thanks for the tip Conder. I'll try jbweld first then. I'll have to dremel some grooves to enhance the physical bond, that will hurt. Will test it on clad coins first for bond strength.
On a positive note. Chicks dig a guy covered with money. Perhaps a nice blazer fashioned out of $100 notes to go with the buttons.
As long as you are not using valuable or collectible coins, I say full speed ahead! I am in the process of creating some coins commemorating the upcoming 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and I will be defacing some worn out 1912 coins. They have no collector value now, but might have some once I am done with them. Same goes for your buttons. As long as you do a good job, you wilkl probably be enhancing the value. They will go from just bullion to bullion jewelry.
I have a pair of Mercury Dime cufflinks that I wear two or three times a month. The coins - both circulated and dated 1944 - are firmly glued down to the link itself.
