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| Two Bit Rings | |
| I saw a reference to a "Two Bit Wedding Ring" while researching another project. A little digging turned up the fact that during the war GI's would spend their down time making rings out of silver coins. They would take a spoon from the mess hall, a silver quarter from their pocket and settle down next to a steel pipe. They would stand the coin on edge and gently tap the edge of the coin with the bowl of the spoon. After each tap they would roll the coin a little bit and tap it again. After several hours of steady tapping the edge of the coin would be rolled out or extruded sideways. They would then drill out the center and after some polishing the end result is a ring that shows the original raised lettering from the coin. | |
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Here are two that I made, one from a
quarter and the other from a half dollar. I didn't have a solid silver
coins on had when these were made but I plan to try them when I get the
chance. If you click on the pictures you can see much more of the detail than in the thumbnails. The pictures really don't do the rings justice as it is difficult to photograph very shiny objects. I really like the way the nickel plating forms a contrasting color band on either side of the ring. |
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I decided to skip the spoon and use a hammer. I wasn't interested in a historical recreation just the end result. I started by drilling a small hole in the middle of the coin and mounting it on a small mandrel. I chucked the mandrel in a cordless drill and used the drill to slowly rotate the coin while tapping the edge with a small ball peen hammer. The other edge of the coin was supported on a small anvil. Once the coin was reduced to the proper diameter for the ring, I chucked the mandrel in the lathe. I evened up the outside edges on the lathe and then using a file I removed the hammer marks from the outside of the ring. I then used progressively finer sandpaper followed with a buffing wheel to polish the outside. |
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I drilled out the center with a step drill
and finished the hole with a rotary burr and progressively finer
abrasives. For a final finish I used a soft cotton polishing mop charged
with jewelers rouge. The half dollar was made as a size eight and the
quarter about a size six. A fun little project that only takes a few hours of spare time and a little pocket change. |
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