Copper box

For our copper wedding anniversary, I thought I'd get creative with Mr Pandammonium's present.  I took inspiration from the internet, and found lots of things decorated with copper coins.  Mr Pandammonium hoards coins of all denominations, so I knew I'd have a good source of copper coins.  And it wouldn't be stealing, only borrowing!

I pootled off to a craft shop, and bought a cardboard box, copper and metallic black waxes, copper paper, glues, applicators and a cardboard number 9, for that is how many years we've been married.  (Copper is 9 years in the UK; 7 in the USA.)

It took a lot longer to make than I anticipated: all that gluing had to be left to dry, plus Mr Pandammonium quite inconsiderately kept coming into the living room, where I was doing it.  Overall, it took from 29th till today to make.

The bottom layer is made from coins with random dates.  The top layer has coins with significant dates (our birth years, the year we met and the year we married).  I gave all the coins a good clean in soapy water.  I put a coat of Mod Podge on the bottom layer to keep it nice.  The top layer, I polished with copper polish and left it untreated.

I noticed that the colour of the newer coins is slightly different to that of the older coins.  That ties in with an experiment we did years ago when we discovered that newer copper coins are magnetic and older ones aren't.  A quick experiment with a fridge magnet and some silver coins shows the same.  Also, 2006 dimes are not magnetic.

Mr Pandammonium seems to like the box :)