Penny Earrings

These earrings started life as pre-1982 pennies. Pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper and 5% zinc, basically a high-copper brass, and solid all the way through. 1982 and later pennies are zinc with copper plating. I hate plating, it feels like lying to me. Electroplating is often only a few ATOMS thick, just enough to change the color. That said, I think the coating on pennies is thicker than that, but still...

This means that older pennies are actually worth about two and a half cents, just from the weight of the copper :-) But more importantly for me, it means that they can be hammered into interesting shapes!

 -Mark

ID Bracelet!

I like to go running, most of you reading this already know this :-)

I just got a new ID bracelet from Road ID. Its a silicone wristband just like all those advocacy bracelets out there, except it has a stainless steel tag that slips on it with your name and contact info. Its pretty easy to change the wristband, so I got a green one and a black one to indulge my vanity. I'm going to stick with purple for now, though.

The main reason I got a new ID was that the silicone bands are easy to wash. Things take a long time to dry up here in the Great Northwest and the webbing band of my last ID never really dried, Ewwww...

I've been wearing it all the time since I got it. I like wearing an ID tag, it makes me feel like somebody is watching out for me :-)

-Mark