I like making what I call "Penny pens". For example, for teachers from my kids schools, I'll find some wood from a tree on the schools property and then find/buy a penny from the year the school was founded. The penny becomes the cooper band you can see. In this case, a friend was enlisting in the Marine Corp. The idea seemed sound but the marine corp was founded in 1775 but that is where ebay comes in. Some might not like drilling & turning an old penny, but I think it's pretty cool and all recipients have loved their pens. It's not destroying it, it's displaying it in a new day. Anyway, this pen is a genuine 1/2 penny from 1775.
I've also made "Mom" pens with pennies from each of their kids birth years.
For those interested, I have a special jig I use to drill the penny out to the barrel width and then cut the blank and add in the penny. It's not easy cutting a penny, but I get it right about 75% of the time.
