Last Updated: April 2026
TL;DR:
- Making jewelry out of coins is legal in the US under 18 U.S.C. § 331 unless you alter a coin to defraud someone — drilling, bending, or bezel-setting a coin isn’t a crime.
- In the UK, Section 10 of the Coinage Act 1971 bans melting or breaking up a coin that’s current (or was current after May 16, 1969) without a Treasury license — up to 2 years in prison on indictment — but a single drilled hole for a pendant sits outside what the law actually targets.
- Skip raw nickel and copper coins against bare skin, use a 1.5mm (1/16″) bit backed by hardwood, and drill 2-3mm in from the edge — that combination prevents the cracked edges and blown-out coins that ruin most first attempts.
Making jewelry out of coins turns pocket change collecting dust into a pendant, ring, or charm that actually gets worn. I’ve drilled, bezel-set, and re-plated more coins than I can count over 20+ years in jewelry manufacturing, and the question I get asked most isn’t how — it’s whether you’ll get arrested for it. You won’t, as long as you’re not trying to pass an altered coin off as something it isn’t. This guide covers the real US and UK law, which coins to pick, and how to drill a hole without splitting the coin down the middle. If you’d rather skip the DIY step, browse jewelry made from old coins instead.
Is It Illegal to Make Jewelry Out of Coins in the US?
No. Under 18 U.S.C. § 331, altering, defacing, or mutilating a coin is only a federal crime if you do it with intent to defraud. Drilling a hole for a necklace, bezel-setting a silver dollar, or stamping a design into a penny carries zero legal risk because none of it deceives anyone.
The statute itself is about fraud, not aesthetics. According to the federal mutilation statute, penalties only apply when someone fraudulently alters a coin’s design and tries to pass it off as different currency — think turning a nickel into something that scans as a rare mint error, or making a base coin look like a valuable die variety. Penny-smashing machines sit in malls and museum gift shops nationwide precisely because elongating a cent for a souvenir has no fraudulent intent behind it.
The U.S. Mint doesn’t endorse plating or altering U.S. coinage for resale, but “not endorsed” and “illegal” are two different things — there’s no statute banning the alteration itself, only fraudulent use of the altered coin.
The One Coin You Can Never Legally Own
One coin breaks this rule entirely, and it has nothing to do with jewelry-making: the 1933 double eagle. The U.S. Mint struck roughly 445,500 of these $20 gold pieces but never officially released them before the country left the gold standard — nearly all were melted down. A handful survived through mint employee theft, and the government still classifies unauthorized possession as illegal regardless of what you’d do with the coin. One surviving example sold at auction for $18.9 million in 2021, which tells you everything about why the Secret Service still tracks down stray copies. If you inherit one, call a lawyer before you call a jeweler.
Is It Illegal to Alter Coins in the UK?
Only if you melt or break up a coin currently in circulation, or one that was current after May 16, 1969, without a Treasury license. Section 10 of the Coinage Act 1971 targets melting metal coins down for scrap value — not decorative alterations like drilling a single hole for a pendant.
The Coinage Act 1971 was written to stop people melting silver and cupronickel coins for their metal content when bullion prices spike, not to police hobbyists drilling a 50p for a keyring. Penalties for unlicensed melting or breaking run up to two years in prison and a fine on indictment, according to the Royal Mint. Where UK law gets genuinely gray is decommissioned coins — pieces withdrawn before May 1969 aren’t covered by the restriction at all, which is why pre-decimal pennies are typically the safest UK coins to drill.
Choosing the Right Coin for Your Project
Skip gold coins entirely — a 1/10 oz gold coin is worth more melted or sold intact than turned into a pendant, and drilling through 22k or 24k gold on a $400+ coin is a bad trade. Silver coins in the 90% silver range (pre-1965 US dimes, quarters, and half dollars) are the sweet spot: valuable enough to look substantial, cheap enough that ruining one doesn’t sting.
Medium-sized coins — cents through half-dollars — are easiest for a beginner because the flat surface gives you room to drill without hitting the design’s high points. Look for coins graded Extremely Fine or better; heavily worn coins have thin spots where a drill bit blows straight through instead of cutting cleanly.
Will Nickel or Copper Coins Irritate Your Skin?
Yes, for a meaningful share of wearers. Nickel triggers contact dermatitis in an estimated 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men, and coins with nickel content — including US nickels and cupronickel-clad dimes and quarters — can cause a reaction with prolonged skin contact.
Copper reacts differently — it’s not usually allergenic on its own, but sweat oxidizes the copper on the coin’s surface and leaves a green or black smudge on the skin, a reaction I cover in more depth in is copper jewelry safe to wear. If you want a coin pendant you can wear daily against your neck or wrist, get it electroplated with a thin rhodium or gold layer first, or seal it with a clear jeweler’s lacquer. Either fix costs a few dollars and saves you from a coin-shaped rash.
What Tools Do You Need to Make Coin Jewelry?
Six items cover most coin jewelry projects, and none of them are expensive:
- Jeweler’s saw — for cutting or reshaping the coin
- Rotary or hand drill with a 1.5mm (1/16″) twist bit
- Hardwood scrap block to back the coin while drilling
- Needle file to smooth the drilled edge
- Safety glasses and work gloves
- Disc cutter and dead-blow mallet (optional, for coin rings)
Add the disc cutter and mallet only if you’re punching coin blanks for rings instead of drilling pendants — it’s a faster, cleaner cut than sawing by hand once you’ve done a dozen.
How Do You Drill a Hole in a Coin Without Cracking It?
Clamp the coin flat on a hardwood block, mark your hole 2-3mm in from the edge (never on the rim), and drill at low speed with a 1.5mm bit and light pressure. Drilling too close to the edge or forcing the bit through too fast are the two mistakes that crack or chip a coin nine times out of ten.
I’ve watched beginners ruin more coins by rushing the drill than by picking the wrong bit size. Let the bit do the work — press hard and you’ll either snap a 1.5mm bit or blow out a chunk of the coin’s edge on exit. Back the coin with a piece of scrap wood so the bit has somewhere to go once it punches through, and keep the hole away from raised design elements like a portrait or date, which are thinner and crack more easily than flat field areas. Once the hole’s drilled, run a needle file around the edge to knock off the burr — a rough hole edge will fray a jump ring or leather cord over time.
How Do You Turn a Drilled Coin Into a Wearable Necklace?
Feed a jump ring through the drilled hole, close it fully with pliers so it can’t snag or open under tension, then attach it to a chain. A 6-7mm 20-gauge jump ring fits most single-hole coin pendants without looking oversized against the coin’s diameter.
Getting the jump ring size right matters more than people expect — too small and you can’t fit a chain through it, too large and the coin swings and flips instead of hanging flat. I break down sizing by coin weight and hole diameter in the best size jump ring for jewelry. Whichever ring you use, close it properly — an open or poorly soldered jump ring is one of the most common reasons coin pendants go missing, and I walk through the fix in how to permanently close jump rings.
If you’d rather skip the jump ring altogether, a bail glued or soldered to the coin’s edge gives a cleaner look — see pendant bail types for the options. For the chain itself, a sterling silver curb or box chain rated for pendant weight, like the picks in silver chain for pendants, holds up better under a coin’s weight than a thin fashion chain.
The Bottom Line
Making jewelry out of coins is legal in the US as long as you’re not defrauding anyone, and legal in the UK as long as you’re not melting or breaking up a coin that’s still current or was current after May 1969 — a single drilled hole for a pendant sits well outside what either law targets. Stick with worn 90% silver coins in the cent-to-half-dollar range, drill 2-3mm in from the edge with a 1.5mm bit backed by hardwood, and finish the edge with a needle file before you attach a jump ring. Skip raw nickel and copper against bare skin unless you plate or seal them first. If you want the finished look without picking up a drill yourself, browse what a coin necklace means for styling ideas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get in trouble for selling coin jewelry?
Only if you misrepresent it. Selling a drilled or bezel-set coin as jewelry is legal in the US and UK provided you don’t market it as unaltered legal tender or claim it’s worth more than its actual metal or collector value. Coin-jewelry sellers on Etsy and elsewhere do this legally by disclosing that the coin has been altered. Trouble starts if you try to pass an altered coin back into circulation as if nothing changed.
Do I need a coin ring or disc cutter, or can I use a regular drill?
A regular hand or rotary drill with a small twist bit works fine for pendants that just need one hole. A disc cutter and mallet are only necessary if you’re shaping a coin into a ring band, which requires punching out the center and rounding the edges — a job a standard drill can’t do cleanly. According to Coin Ring Maker, most beginners start with pendants before attempting rings for exactly this reason.
What’s the best coin size for a beginner?
Cents through half-dollars. Anything smaller than a dime is hard to drill without cracking, and anything larger than a half-dollar gets heavy enough to need a sturdier jump ring and chain than most beginners have on hand.
Does drilling a coin destroy its collector value?
Yes, almost always. A drilled hole classifies a coin as damaged to collectors and grading services, dropping its value to melt or bullion price regardless of its original rarity. Never drill a coin you haven’t checked against a price guide first — some common-looking coins are worth 10-50x face value intact.
Can you melt coins down to make jewelry instead of drilling them?
Not with pennies or nickels — the U.S. Mint banned melting or mass-exporting pennies and nickels in 2006 after copper and zinc prices pushed their metal value above face value, with penalties up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to the U.S. Mint. Other US coins don’t carry that specific restriction, but melting destroys any collector value and requires equipment most hobbyists don’t have. In the UK, melting any coin still current (or current after May 1969) without a Treasury license is illegal under the Coinage Act 1971. Drilling or reshaping stays the safer, far more common route either way.
Tiger is a fashion&jewelry lover. He is also a fashion jewelry manufacturer that help thousands of small business to grow and also do business with some big fashion jewelry brands. He is a truly metal expert and he will share some information you are looking for.