There is this mobile hanging in the back stairway of my mother’s house. It is a mobile made from pennies. The picture is the best I could do given the space and my poor photography skills.

My dad was a coin collector as was his father. They got me into it as a boy and I still enjoy it. His 70th birthday was coming up and it was a big deal. He was a good man and father, the best man at my wedding, and had put up with years of me being other than good, so maybe a unique gift was in order. I had recently realized that I was an artist so some sculpture seemed like a god idea.

I had been fooling around with mobiles made of circles and when the idea of doing one of pennies came to mind it seemed fitting. Seventy cents seemed like it fit my budget too! I started by gathering 1932-2002 pennies. The mobile is basically eight little mobiles balanced into one big one. Each decade of pennies is it’s own different shape. The bottom starts with a 1932 Lincoln cent and the top (last) is 2002.

On a visit to our house he came out to the studio while it was under construction. Fortunately it was flat on the bench and in pieces so he never had a clue. It was completed on time and I hung it where it now is. Boxing it up and gift wrapping it was not happening!

He liked it.

I planed to add more as he grew older. Dad lived to be 80 so maybe I should finish that piece of artwork, or just leave it like it is.