Experiment: Drilling Your Own Coins

Reality: coins for tribal costuming are expensive, and seem to be getting more expensive.  I used to complain about needing so many quarters to do laundry.  Now I sew 50 or more coins on a bra, which cost between 20 cents and a quarter each (with shipping charges taken into account).  Dowry, indeed!

There's got to be a cheaper way, right?  I mean, I'm buying these drilled aluminum coins from India that have the monetary value of about a half penny each.  That's some markup.  Surely I can save myself some money if I'm willing to do a little work?

Well, kind of.  

Here are the tools you need to drill coins:

• a rotary tool or good drill with a small drilling bit(s), titanium or something suitable for drilling metal
• lubricant for drilling metal
• center punch, hammer
• cardboard
• tape
• xacto knife, pen, thumbtacks
• small piece of scrap wood

And, of course, you need coins.  Try searching for bulk coins on Ebay.  You'll notice many of the lots are mixed coins with a lot of copper.  I think copper coin decoration would be pretty, but you might not like the look of mixed metals.  You may end up paying for a lot of unsuitable coins.  A pound of coins has around 100 coins, so if you buy a pound of coins for $10 with shipping, you'll be paying ~10 cents a coin. 

Say you want paisa coins from India or Pakistan, so you won't have any duds and the coins will match.  Right now there is a listing for a pound of paisa coins for $15 shipped.  15 cents a coin is a savings from ~25 cents a coin, but is it worth your time and effort to drill each one?


Let's get to the drilling.  First off, these are tips that I googled and tried myself and they work.  There may be better ways, but this is the best information I was able to dig up.

Use the center punch and hammer to strike a nice mark in the coin so the tip of your drill bit won't skitter around while you're trying to start drilling.  This will help with accurate placement of your hole. 

Take a coin and your piece of cardboard and trace around the coin, then use the xacto knife to cut out the shape.  Thumbtack this cardboard template to your piece of scrap wood.  Put your coin in the coin shaped hole and tape the coin into place (popsicle sticks were also recommended to hold the coin securely in position - whatever you use, the coin needs to not wiggle around).

Lubricate the drill bit and drill the hole until you feel the bit dig into the wood.  Use a low rpm speed if using a rotary tool.  It is better for the life of your drill bits to drill a small hole and then enlarge it by re-drilling with larger bits, instead of trying to drill a large hole from the start.

Now repeat 50 or 100 times.  I can see how this would get very tedious.

I think if I could drill my own coins for 10 cents a coin or less, I would consider it a viable option.  But the cost in time and effort and extra tools ($10 for the center punch and metal lubricant) cancels out what I would save by doing the work myself.  This might be a great idea for a special custom project (like a coin bra with copper coins), but I think I will stick to ordering mine.  So, now you know.