My 2 favorite hobbies are woodworking and coin collecting. I am trying to figure out how to do a family tree incorporating pictures and birth year coins for my family from Great Grandparents down to mine and my brothers' children. Has anyone else built or seen something like this? I plan on making it at least 36"x 24", possibly bigger. I am also planning on doing a Proof set/picture framed combo, for the birth of a family friends' baby. Any help would be greatly appreciated.:bow: Thanks again. Sgklee.
very cool idea!!! a big undertaking, but sounds like you know what your doing.. Good Luck!!! Do post pics when your done
WOW, That sounds like one hell of a project! Especially if you have a large family. For coins I might suggest Air Tite holders. Those wouldn't take up much more room than a coin's diameter. You could probably drill out the right diameter then mount the holder and coin in that space. Hey, I don't do woodworking but it IS an idea. Good Luck! clembo
Use mahogany for the wood - other types of wood can put off gases that are harmful to the coins. So can the finishes you might put on the wood.
good idea...maybe you can use felt or some other soft fabric under each coin to keep them from being harmed by wood or finish.
It wouldn't matter if he used felt. The old cabinet makers doscovered when they used to make coin cabinets what the drawbacks were for using these materials - the results were not pleasant. Do a search for coin cabinets and read up on it - you'll see what I mean.
HEre is a quote i found...in it might be good advice. Seems the problem with felt is that the coin might slide when drawer is open? It seems mohagany is without doubt the prefered wood. Wooden Coin Cabinets: Traditional and attractive but not recommended as the wood is inherently acidic. the flocked or velvet lining of these cases is also problematic and coins can move around when the drawers are opened and closed. Enamelled metal cabinets are recommended as a safe alternative to wooden ones. Wooden cabinets can be made more safe by painting them with an acrylic latex and lining the drawers with an acid-free barrier. just an idea but maybe you could get mohagany... buy some air tites that fit each coin, then make nitches in the wood in which you can permenantly insert the airtites into the nitches, hold them there maybe with some adhesive to make sure the dont fall out? or maybe even make the nitches deep enough to use velcro so they can be removed? just idears.
I have been working on designing a similar but larger project for some time. T was planning to do it more on an historic timeline type design. I have decided to use mahogony and airtite holders. My big problem is I'm having a hard time with designing it without it being too big. My family traces back to Charlemagne! Then again it will probably take the rest of my life just to afford the coins to go in it! Ziggy
Actually thats not the half of it! Many of my ancestors are royalty and are depicted on Brittish, French and Spanish coins. I will also have to include a "side branch" to include my cousins John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Ziggy
That's my pup, Maximus. Thanks for the ideas and info. My original plan was to us a white poplar plywood background and cut a tree out of red oak. I think I will make the tree out of mahogany now though. I just am not very artistic when it comes to designing. The way I was wanting to do it was have a picture and a coin from the birth year of that person imbedded in the tree next to each other. My father's coin is a 1943 walking half dollar, with his mother a 1917 walker. Those are some of my most cherished coins so they wil be kept in airtite holders. Thanks again for any heip. Sgklee
Here is an idea. Since you mentione possibly a 24" x 36" size and that is pretty much a standard for many oil paintings, why not make a frame of that size. Now lay out a sheet of some material that is fairly hard that would fit into that frame rather tightly. If you can draw or have someone draw a picture of a tree on that. Add photos of any relatives you can at the end of branches with a coin appearing to hang from the branch. The coin would have to be one that has the date of the person shown or just a note explaining them. Now do not use valuable coins because of the next thing. Buy some liquid plastic and pour it over the entire thing and allow to dry. Then hang it up like an oil painting.
