So I am taking a fine-arts metals class this term, and decided to make my first project in honor of the gold smith whos coins helped strike the interest in numismatics in my 8 year old head. In my mind Ephraim Brasher designed one of the most interesting gold coins of the era. Anyway I've always liked his style, and decided to make this:




all comments welcome as this is my first one and if anyone else is a metal worker please let me know what you think. I want to get better!

Looks good, just wondering what metals?

Thanks Mark!

The metals are, 0.925 silver for the eagles head and tail, and the pegs in the shield. The shield itself is copper, and the wings and feet are brass. (which looks gold at this point in oxidation) If I wasn't so dang poor I'd have made it out of gold, meh.

I really should start working metal myself. I have access to a lot of free copper and some lower grade silver. (Scrap 4" electrical buss bar and large silver contacts.) I even replaced a 600 ampere contactor today. It's in the trash bucket of my truck.

Very nice

Neat!

thats real cool...I have wanted to mint my own coin but I just dont know how to go about making dies...

Again though, that is real impressive.

Thanks everyone for the kind words, remember though crit is welcome as well, help me learn!

As for making your own coins, right now I am making cast rings, but my next project will involve hand engraved spanish cob style brass dies to make silver rounds for a project. Basically making my own fantasy coin, if the dies hold up, I plan on making around 50 coins, 30 silver, 15 copper, and 5 in 14k gold.

If I had to critique I would say I would like to see more detail to the head and wings, but it has a certain simple charm the way it is and I like the dual metal.

How do you plan to make a die? I know how to make a minting press and I know how to make coin flans but I am not at all sure how I would go about engraving a die. I was thinking I should create the coin in clay then make a mold but unless its a hard metal then I dont know if it would hold up to hammering. I have a million ideas for coins and would love to give it a try. If I wanted to engrave the die in hard metal what metal? and how what would one use to engrave into it? not to derail the thread...

Honestly, I am not that good at engraving, so I chose another method to make these. Also, I am roll milling these coins, not hammering. I used a 1.5 inch round bar of brass, cut half inch blanks off the ends and polished the crud out of them. Brass is a rather soft metal so they would only be good for maybe half a dozen coins if hammered, rolling will help them last a lot longer.

Anyway, I am making a basic iron cross and shield pattern, or possibly an eagle depending. I am simply hammering with a small metal punch into the die and then polishing the punched in areas. I am going to go back into the areas after I clean them up and rub them with 400 grit sandpaper to give the final coin a proof like, frosted detail finish. I've never done this sort of thing before, but I did make some simple die trials and rolled a few copper coins, and it worked really well, so I feel it will do what I want it to lol. There are also ways to make coins in steel dies using acid etching, but I dont have access to that at the moment. Anyway, just play around with some ideas in brass, or even lead for die trials like the mint used to, it's worth the effort once you've completed a coin! Good luck!