penny press contraption
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- čas přidán 14. 03. 2024
- In this video you can see one of the contraptions I made to assemble the Hundred Thousand Penny Cube. An hydraulic bottle jack mated with an automotive gauge and mounted on a gantry. This tool allowed me to apply the huge force necessary to press the 51 sheets of Pennies together to form a cube.
The pennies are precisely cut with notches slightly narrower than the coins themselves. The notches are joined together under tremendous force but once joined they are very sturdy with no need for glue or welds, just Pennies.
Pressing the penny flats together is tremendously satisfying. Under huge pressure the pennies visibly buckle and deform as they sank into each other’s notches until finally the joints closed completely and the coins leveled out, perfectly flat.
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Subscribed. Question though, you use the press to fuse(?) them on the y axis, but do you also do the same on the x and z axes? I guess what I'm asking is how is the layer that you're currently pressing onto the growing cube formed in the first place, if that makes sense?
Thanks for the question. yes the coins need to be compressed in the X and Y before being stacked up in the Z axis. The sheets you see are pressed in the X and Y using a different tool set. I just posted a video showing that whole process albeit on a smaller sized flat. check it out!
Can you please make a piece like this using bills instead of coins next time. Like using some kind of origami
I want to see what you can do with more money.
As in imagine how much faster you could make that with a big press and a large studio and an on site machinist than can make you whatever jigs you need for more projects.
Are your peices going to be sold or leased to studios.
I hope people give you more money as clearly you do cool things with it.
Subbed! Hope you post longer video explaining what I'm looking at and what all of this is
I sure will, Thanks!
Nice... I subscribed... Please post more vids about this!
Thank you for the kind comment. I will post more, I promise.
what does it do to the pennies well below the ones you are pressing down on? Is there a cumulative effect?
good question. doing work like this you consider two forms of deformation, "Elastic Deformation" takes place when the metal/penny bends a bit under force but not too much and bounces back to its original dimensions. "Plastic Deformation" occurs when you apply too much force and the metal (penny in this case) bends permanently and does not bounce back.
I did some testing and basically calcualted the amount of force I needed to close the joints completely without entering into "plastic deformation" territory. So as I'm pressing down the pennies below might be flexing and any slightly open joints might be closed more completely but I'm not applying enough force to crush the coins.
Art costs
Us code title 18 chapter 17
The relevant law (U.S.C. Title 18, Chapter 17, Section 331) begins “whoever fraudulently alters…”. And the second paragraph begins the same “whoever fraudulently a…” the word fraudulently is intentional and meaningful. Without that word the would mean any ‘alteration’ or ‘possession’ of altered coins would be criminal but the use of the word fraudulent here means ‘fraudulent intent’ must be attached to the act in order for it to be a crime. But you don’t have to take my word for it.
In 1980 A Mr Vance Fowler wrote the treasure asking if compressed Penny souvenirs are illegal. He got a response from Kenneth B Gubin Council to the Mint, it read in part:
“you refer to and question the legality of a souvenir machine which compresses coins and returns a souvenir. You refer to Title 18, U.S.C. Section 331 and 475
“As you are already aware, a federal statute in the criminal code of the United States (18 U.S.C. 331) indeed makes it illegal if one ‘fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens’ any US coin. However, being a criminal statute, a fraudulent intent is required for violation. Thus, the mere act of compressing coins into souvenirs is not illegal, without other factors being present’
The letter was written by the mints legal council on letter head from the Department of the Treasury, Office of the Director of the Mint. So as far as that authority is concerned this kind of work is not illegal
Why destroy money?
Thanks for the question, its a complicated one, and touches on some pretty big ideas that I like to explore. First, I might argue that this is not an act of destruction, but rather one of creation and elevation. I'm working with pennies which most people these days would rather throw away, than use as money. They are notoriously low-value, but I think they are beautiful artifacts, rich with meaning and worthy of a second look. This project is designed to re-frame them in such a way that the viewer is encouraged to look twice at something they've long since stopped seeing.
A Second point I like to make is that this project is made from $1000 worth of coins and that's really very cheap. If I were to make something this same size in bronze or marble it would cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some people see this work and say "your wasting your money" but really its cheaper than almost any other medium. The big difference is that the money has a 'face value' while the dollar-cost of marble or the bronze are more opaque to the average person.
Some people might argue that I'm pulling money from circulation or get angry at me for destroying 'government property' or 'tax payers' money. And this is where I get most interested in the argument because it gets at the strangeness of money. Who owns the money we use? are my pennies my money or are they our money?
With an estimated fifty billion currently in circulation, the penny is one of humanity’s most numerous artifacts. Pennies are a childhood token, a good-luck charm, an icon of American culture, a monument to a beloved president, and the most humble monetary piece of the most powerful economy in world history. As much ornament as legal tender, the penny has been bled of its utility and rendered worthless by more than a century of inflation. Produced without purpose, exceptionally common but rarely used, ubiquitous to the point of invisibility, I see the penny as fertile ground for surprise.
This project took seven years to complete. During that time this piece has grown to be less about the penny itself and more about money in general. The penny is a familiar handhold for me to try and grapple with the less tangible, more intractable concepts of money as a force in our world. For me the piece is about the two-faced strangeness of money. It’s both concrete and unfathomable, servant and god, petty and powerful. Something that wounds us and binds us together; a thing of darkness and light.
Bet you weren't expecting an articulate and well thought out answer to your question eh, James Davis?
Pennies aren’t money. They’re a nuisance.
Seeing your process and how methodical and precise it is gives me that much more of an appreciation for the sculpture itself. There’s a story hidden in each layer of every piece - within the history of the pennies themselves (how they were made, circulated, and collected), to the planning and assembling each coin into the final sculpture.
Man takes $1000 turns it into art. Art becomes worth a value that moves depending on how you feel about it.
If it makes you angry it makes it more valuable to someone.
If it makes you happy more value.
If it makes you feel awe more valuable.
If it gets you talking then its more valuable.
Lol get angry and call the news and tell them this artist is destroying penny's and that news article will make the artist money and the news agency money.
And the pennys become more valuable...