Craftster user lasandri of sandrisuperstar made this amazing penny necklace using 36 pennies and some jump rings! I love the use of pennies, love the asymmetrical shape, and love the price to make it! For those of you who are going to ask, it’s NOT illegal to alter/use pennies to make art. It’s only illegal to deface money for fraudulent purposes. (United States Code Section 331, title 18). I love the idea of using pennies to make jewelry! [click here for the craftster thread featuring this necklace]

How lasandri made it: she drilled the holes with a hand drill using a tiny bit (she doesn’t know what size because the bits weren’t marked). She used jump rings to put it together. It took her about five hours to drill the holes and an hour to put it together (if you calculate your pay-per-hour, that makes this necklace MUCH more expensive than 36 cents!!) If you don’t have the patience for a large-scale project like this, you can easily make penny earrings using this as inspiration in minutes, or a bracelet in less than an hour.

I have seen jump rings for sale at my local dollar store, so the cost for raw materials is pretty low for this high-impact necklace!

Project Estimate:

  • 36 pennies, $.36
  • Jump rings, $1
  • A clasp, on hand
  • A drill, on hand

Total: $1.36