Ah, the lonely penny makes no noise. Get a whole mess of them together with a few quarters and dimes, though and you have a small orchestra in your pocket. I woke up this morning, fed The Cheat, put on the kettle and took a glance out through the window at the crystalline cold before plodding in the shower. There, for reasons I will never fully understand, my mind wandered in the steam before settling on coins. Mobile little pieces of metal jingling in my pocket (not in the shower, mind you, but at other times, yes). I wondered and wandered, thinking of those rare commemorative coins commercials I see on television complete with protective plastic cases and certificates of authenticity, family heirlooms to be passed down to my progeny to help fund their college education.

     I almost hate myself for including this one. Not because it is horrendously ugly or makes an outlandish political or religious statement. No. The real reason is that I could actually BUY one unlike many of the other things we have here on Friday Props where, if you want one, you need to MAKE it. I couldn't make this. It isn't so silly expensive that I must satisfy myself with dreaming in about it in the hot morning shower time. No. There are plenty of people who make jewerly from coins, but this....this is purty. Don't get any ideas about my birthday or Christmas, though. My wrists are too manly.

"Too manly for a coin bracelet? What AM I going to get you for Christmas/your birthday, then?"
     Well, here's an idea: coin-plated tools. Art + function = super-cool. Stacey Lee Webber is an artist/instructor/metal smith at the Metal Museum in Memphis and her art? I think it speaks for itself. Wondering what to get your beau for Valentine's Day? Some flowers, a decadent piece of absurdly good chocolate and something from Stacey.

     Finally, for Prop number three, we bow deeply in the Japanese tradition to a project from 2010 that won the Global Design Award from the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. Besides being made of many, many little coins and also rather pretty, the message is very, very thought provoking. I thoroughly appreciate the duality of the statement and may go so far as to post it on the inside of my little bunker here at work. Seriously. Blow the picture up. Sit back in your chair and think about it for a few moments....it sure beats the hell out of that bracelet.