AFAIK, IANAL and FWIW, in theory, that would be illegal.
Please explain.
Kind of cool looking though I think I’d want to mix in some pennies that have some patina on them. Funny, I wouldn’t normally like the look of it if it was a a rug but the uniqueness of the material gives it a little edge. Would have to be in area with low foot traffic and maybe just as an accent as opposed to a whole floor.
There’s a car around here that someone’s cover in pennies. I can’t recall at the moment what model, maybe a K-car (?)
You’d have to fill in a lot of gaps anyways because circles don’t tile neatly, so you might as well fill in a somewhat larger gap at the wall.
No it wouldn’t. The law against defacing coins only applies to fraudulent alteration (e.g. clipping coins back when they were made of precious metal).
I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere, but in my experience, when the carpet is lifted in a room, there’s usually a 3mm or so gap between the bottom of the skirting board (baseboard in USA I think) and the floor - the edge row of pennies would tuck under that OK.
(I don’t think the gap I’ve seen was put there to allow the carpet to run under the skirting - I think it’s just a way of ensuring that the skirting boards can run completely straight and level regardless of any small irregularities in the floorboards)
Or gold bars.
Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.”
None of which is being done by using them as flooring.
Agreed - even cutting them in half isn’t fraudulent alteration. It might be if there was such a thing as a semicircular coin worth two cents and you appeared to be trying to pass of your half pennies as tuppences.
…“and puts them back into circulation in any way.” You’re free to drill holes in George’s eyes if it amuses you, but don’t put the quarter in a gumball machine afterwards.
My concern would be color variation from wear. Unless you’re going to use old copper cents, which would significantly increase the cost of the floor (are there any copper cents worth less than 20-30 cents now?), the copper plating would quickly and unevenly wear through to the zinc, which is a more reactive metal and would etch away under most floor cleaners and many common spills. Yes, you could coat/seal it, but unlike wood that can be reinfinished, any wear-through to the metal would be difficult to clean up and re-coat.
10/10 for the idea. About 3/10 for workability.
Pennies ensues.
No mention of ass pennies? 
Hell, that’s the only way they’ll retain their copper-ness. Modern pennies have such a thin layer of copper that the slightest amount of wear would turn all the coins zinc-grey. Can you imagine? All the traffic areas would be dreary grey-silver (zinc is not a particularly pretty metal). Think “galvanized sheet metal” grey.
Emphasis added
That’s pretty cool-looking.
I want to throw a few thousand + pennies on in the driveway (dirt driveway) Imagine the future when the pennies are all buried and some kid comes alone and starts finding them. They’d be tickled!
I like it. I’ve never seen that done.
I think it looks more like an unusual copper colored tile than a tacky use of pennies.
I’m trying to find images of a penny floor with some wear on it. Similar to the possibility of the zinc showing. Anybody have any luck with that?
I’m trying to find images of a penny floor with some wear on it. Similar to the possibility of the zinc showing. Anybody have any luck with that?
After all, it’s not that the authorities haven’t noticed those penny-press machines that crank out novelty souvenirs; it’s that they genuinely don’t care.