Our family travels quite a bit, and as a result we have collected a large jar of foreign coins left over from our trips.
I am fascinated by the coins! They are truly works of art. Some with holes in the centers, scalloped edges, mixes of metals, and beautiful scrolled embossing.
I wanted to recycle the coins into something beautiful, so I chose to make a DIY charm bracelet.
I chose to use glue-on bail mounts to attach the coins to the bracelet. The jury is still out on the legality of drilling holes into currency.
Supplies needed to make your own foreign coin DIY charm bracelet:
- I used four bail mounts of each of the following for one bracelet:
- Craft Bracelet Chain with Toggle Clasp
- Jump Rings
- E-6000 Adhesive
- Foreign Coins
The first thing I did was clean the coins I wanted to use. I just used some dish soap and an old toothbrush. Let them dry, and then select the jewelry bails you want to use for each coin, and the placement of the bail.
Adhere the jewelry bails to the coins.
Lay the coins out over the edge of a book to allow them to lay flat to dry. The bails will over-hang the coins.
Allow the glue to dry thoroughly.
Add jump rings to the loops of the bails using pliers.
Attach the bails to the charm bracelet with the jump rings.
Decide how you would like your coins to be spaced and arranged, and continue adding coins until your DIY charm bracelet is full.
Make sure your bracelet fits tightly, and will not slip off of your hand- the coins will weigh the bracelet down. I had to remove a couple of links in my bracelet.
Enjoy your unique and charming foreign DIY charm bracelet!
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Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).
I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while. I love your bracelet. Unfortunately, mine wont be as full as your’s…yet, I’m working on it. I was wondering if there was a reason you just didn’t drill holes into the coins. Is the glue holding up well enough?
Love this idea. So happy that you’ve visited Barbados and used our $1 coin!
Barbados is beautiful, as are the people who live there. I was really impressed by how happy and friendly you all are!
I have been looking for something like this for sometime now. I have traveled all over the world and have coins of all shapes and sizes from various countries and have been wanting to create a bracelet exactly as you did. I too have wondered about the legality of drilling holes in coins, even though these would all be from countries outside of the USA. Would you be offended if I created one as you show?
Thanks for sharing.
What a super idea!! I have a gold coin bracelet my late husband gave me that I don’t wear for fear of losing it. If you don’t have these coins where can you get them?
You’d have to buy them.