Pennies - Again!

I am always thinking of ways to use pennies - especially since I have been able to quickly drill holes in my 2 quart jar full of pennies - thanks to my fabulous BIL and his machine shop (DMI).  I had been drilling them by hand - marking each penny with a pilot hole, then drilling and filing each one - which took a few minutes for each penny.  He suggested one day that I come into his shop (after picking my brain about the hole size and orientation) and use one of his "manual" machines - and being the tool junkie that I am, I immediately accepted. One of his machine gurus set up the machine for me - with a place for a single penny to be drilled, and after a quick consultation on where I wanted the hole, I was up and running.  To say the machine made the work easier is such an understatement - (as is to say that I would "like" to work in the machine shop - no seriously, I would LOVE to work in the machine shop)........I was able to drill the jar of pennies in mere hours rather than the days it would have taken if I were to do them one by one.

After a day or two of drilling just the one hole I decided I wanted two holes in each penny ( for links or whatever) and with a quick flip of the penny was able to do just that.  Then with a single adjustment, I drilled some center holes........and came up with this idea:

I drilled a center hole in each penny, then a hole at the top to hang; domed each penny so the date shows on the back side of the drop; wired (using one of my hand torched copper head pins) a turquoise disc to the penny and added a jump ring.  I am thinking of adding a patina to them so they have a more "worn" look. 

I also enameled a bunch of pennies:

I used some new color combinations - like the gold base with the red over top and the white base with the gold over top:

For the light green ones I mixed some white enamel and some deep green enamel together, sifted it on to the pennies and fired:

Some are domed and some are flat:

And some are colored perfectly for an autumn piece: