American Flag made with Pennies and Dimes

[Schatzy]

I was inspired by a post of a hotel floor made with pennies. I decided it would be cool to

make a craft project with pennies. I came up with an idea of making an American flag

with pennies and I used the dimes as stars. The flag contains 2622 pennies and 50

dimes. I got 3 $25 boxes of pennies to make the flag. The hardest thing about the

project was finding the bright red lincolns. During the search through 150 rolls, I found 2

dimes, 17 wheat backs (1 of them was from 1910 and the rest were from the 40's and

50's), 7 Canadian cents and 1 panama cent.

 

 

How I made it!!

I measured the pennies and decided that I wanted to do 3 rows per strip so I would

need 39 rows. I cut a 3/8" piece of plywood to 26.5" by 48". I used amazing goop

household adhesive to glue every penny down. During the process I learned I could only

glue about 3 rows down at a time or the penny's would move when I pushed them into

place. The process isn't as time consuming as one would think. I could do 3 rows in

about 20 minutes. To make the frame I bought some 3/4" x 3" x 8' oak. I used the table

saw to rip a grove in it so the flag would sit flush with the plywood. I was going to add

glass to the frame but I really didn't like the way it looked so I took the glass back out.

To preserve the pennies I sprayed the whole thing with a clear coat finish (matte finish).

After it dried you could even tell I sprayed it. I did test the clear coat before I sprayed

the whole thing to make sure it wouldn't do something weird. I used (6) metal brackets

to secure the frame to the plywood. I used a 200 lbs bracket to hang the flag on the

wall. The flag is hanging by the plywood back and not the oak frame. I thought the flag

may be too heavy for the frame to support.

 

So what it cost!!

Plywood......$10

Frame.........$25

Spray...........$5

Adhesive.....$10

Hanger...,....$15

Coins..........$31.22

Total...........$96.22

 

Overall I am very happy with the flag and I have already started a new bigger flag with an

added twist. I am going to do a 3' by 5' flag but I am going to make the stars out of

each state quarter that the star represents!!

 

[Schatzy]

Here is the flag during the process.

[ldhair]

Cool project.

[mtnstyne]

I like the state quarter twist, very cool idea!

[bsshog40]

That turned out great Jaime. Cant wait to see the next one!

[cpm9ball]

Nice work, Jaime!

 

I think you should recreate the flag that Betsy Ross made to fly over Ft. McHenry....30'x42'

 

Chris

[Schatzy]

Nice work, Jaime!

 

I think you should recreate the flag that Betsy Ross made to fly over Ft. McHenry....30'x42'

 

Chris

 

That would be over $3800 in pennies, so I am going to need to borrow $3700!!

[SPeck95512]

Very cool. Maybe throw in an Indian Head Cent and make it a scavenger hunt for kids, kinda' like Where's Waldo?.

[physics-fan3.14]

That's awesome, but I like the State Quarter flag idea even better.

[Schatzy]

So which way to do you think I should incorporate the state quarters.

[cpm9ball]

So which way to do you think I should incorporate the state quarters.

 

I don't like the look of the quarter sitting on top of the Lincoln's. What if you painted the plywood a red-brown in the area where each quarter will be placed so it wouldn't stand out as much?

 

Chris

[bsshog40]

Or maybe like a checkerboard where the stars (Qtrs) would go. Paint the squares a color u like, then border them with a dark line. The Qtrs would stand out better an then your cents for the stripes again. Just a thought.

[Lastufka Collection]

That turned out great. Can't wait to see what you do with the state quarters, that's an awesome idea. No opinion on the format, but I like the idea of painting the board behind it to make them stand out a bit more.

[WoodenJefferson]

Get a real flag, jesso it to the board and add the coins over the top, the blue behind the quarters will make them stand out...or just paint the board flag colors.

 

Good luck!

[Schatzy]

Here is another way I could do the state quarter.

I like the idea about painting the flag behind the pennies.

[mhomei]

very cool

I say on top of the pennies