One of the random things I collect is currency from the countries that I visit. I currently have six countries (I've been to more than that, but I didn't start this until I was an adult, so I don't have some of them like Hong Kong or Malaysia). The biggest problem I had was that I didn't have a way to display them. People frame money all the time, but sometimes the notes are beautiful front and back, and I wanted to be able to display both sides. I finally came up with the idea of getting floating frames, sandwiching the money between them, and hanging them on a wall with the ability to get them down. I ordered a bunch of floating frames off of Amazon in a large and a small size. I intended to use the large for paper currency and the small for coins.
After cleaning the glass on the frames, I measured and spaced the bills where I wanted them (I had so much Vietnamese dong, I had to use two large frames, and with no space between the bills), and then taped them with masking tape on one side.
Using the tape as a hinge, I flipped it over. I then put a small amount of double sided archive tape.
Peeling off the back of the tape was a pain. Flipping the currency back over, I pressed the bill to the glass. After doing all them, I laid the other piece of glass over the first and fit them into the frame. Here's the back:
And the front. Voila.I know the "front" of the dong is the one with Ho Chi Minh, but I thought the other side was prettier.
The coins were a little bit harder. I first marked out a piece of paper with the centers crossing. I then arranged the coins to where I wanted them to be, and traced the outlines. This is the example with the British coins, which form the royal crest on the back of them:
After that, lay the paper under one of the pieces of glass, centering it. (I neglected to get a picture of this.) The adhesive that I used was called E6000. It dries completely clear, and you only need a small amount (emphasis on small). I put a dab, here on the 1p.
And laid it on its place on the template (again, forgot to get a picture of this). After doing all the coins, carefully place the second pane of glass on the coins, Leave for a day to cure.
I did all of them in less than a hour, They are currently sitting in my closet waiting for Justin to hang them. Sadly, the only wall I have blank and wide enough is in my bedroom, but maybe some day I'll have a long hallway where I can hang them to be a conversation piece.
