Memorial plaque (dead man's penny) mounting problems

[Cabinann]

Hi everyone I'm new sInce yesterday and was hoping you may have a good idea on how to mount a WW1 memorial plaque known as dead man's penny, it is 5" wide and pretty heavy, some time ago I saw on the Web some ultra clear film a bit like cling film I suppose that would encase an object and be attached behind , I thought this would be a good way to go, but on trying to find it on Web I cannot. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, or have a better idea to mount this, thanks Ann

[pramsay13]

I've done it a couple of times using a plate hanger like this.
From the front you can see the 4 points around the outside, but it looks pretty neat and there's no way it will fail.

[pramsay13]

It's not a good photo, but you can probably make out the two points at the top of the coins.

[Cabinann]

Thanks Pramsay, that's a brilliant idea, why didn't I think of it, that will also fit in with the request for the frame to be made to open as there is also the book with all who were killed during the war, so they can take out if need be, thanks once again ann

[Cabinann]

Ps your framing looks amazing

[Steve N]

If you are going to use them plate hangers, use heat shrink rubber tubing ( black or dark colour) over the white covered wires, the stuff you cover wires when you have soldered a connector on to the wire.
A, offer more protection for the plaque,
and B, will not be so noticeable as the white covered wires bent around the plaque

[Cabinann]

Ok will do ,have to get hubby on board with tech stuff like electrical wire he'll know, many thanks ann

[prospero]

I have heard of people using a thin mesh fabric called Tulle for wrapping objects (almost) invisibly.
Never used it or looked into the subject very closely. In any case I don't think a method like this would
work well on a heavy object that had to 'hang'.

Plate Hangers.

[IFGL]

I saw a 3D printed bracket custom printed for a coin somewhere, anyway I will be buying a 3d printer soon for this kind of thing, not sure if I will ever get back what I spend, but this is just too cool to pass on.

[Cabinann]

Thanks prosperous that could be useful links for other objects that will surely come my way will investigate that

[Cabinann]

Ooooops stupid predictive text

[Cabinann]

Yeah 3d printer they are amazing perhaps you can sell rebate shapes and supports for framers needs .

[Not your average framer]

I perfer to use mounting methods whenever I can which are a lot less visible than the plate hangers and there are ways to do this without the mounting method having any visible effect whatsoever.

In this case, I would reverse cut a mount to set the dead man's penny into and add a suitably spaced piece of glass in front to hold the dead man's penny in place and add another mount in front of the glass, before adding another piece of glass in front of the mount. Whatever spacer you use behind the first piece of glass will be completely hidden behind the mount at the front and under normal viewing conditions no one has any idea that there is more than one piece of glass in place.

It looks even better if you use off-cuts of anti-reflective glass and since I buy my anti-reflective glass by the sheet, I am always wondering what to do with any smaller left over pieces. Well, this is a perfect use for such left overs and it suitably impresses the customers when they can't understand what is holding items in place, which mounted and framed using this method.

I generally use two backing boards behind so that the back remains as flat and rigid as possible, the inner most of these backing boards is usually 5mm foamboard which will stay extremely flat under most conditions. At one time I had some off cuts of 12mm foamboard, which is even better, but eventually that was all used up over the years.

Wessex picture are stockists for 12mm foamboard, they may be other stockists, if anyone knows off any other stockists, please feel free to let everyone else know!

[StevenG]

I saw a 3D printed bracket custom printed for a coin somewhere, anyway I will be buying a 3d printer soon for this kind of thing, not sure if I will ever get back what I spend, but this is just too cool to pass on.

I hear you brother

[Cabinann]

Thanks Mark that also sounds like a very good idea I use wessex and also have lots of offcuts of 5mm foam and anti ref glass , I am allways packing things out behind mount board never thought of using glass to hold in place will give that a go. I may post pic if it all goes well

[misterdiy]

We sink mount ours too. Much easier and full visibility. We have done a few of these and they look stunning,especially if you have a picture of the recipient to give it context.

[Tudor Rose]

If you're going to sink mount it why not cut a circle in foamboard so it's a tight fit then the mount can just sit slightly over the front edge of the penny. The penny will be held securely in place by the foamboard and won't tip forward or shift/spin and you will only need one layer of glass as normal.

[Cabinann]

Yes this is possibility, I actually did that with a dart board worked successfully, thanks because the penny is relatively small I was thinking of other ways to mount , but sink mounting is probably the best way thankyou

[Not your average framer]

If you're going to sink mount it why not cut a circle in foamboard so it's a tight fit then the mount can just sit slightly over the front edge of the penny. The penny will be held securely in place by the foamboard and won't tip forward or shift/spin and you will only need one layer of glass as normal.

That's true, but I think that it looks more impressive to mount it in a reverse cut mount which pushes down over the dead man's penny from the front face. It's not that hard to get actual contact between the very front edge of the reverse cut bevel, which is a very thin edge and will give a little to get a bit of a tight fit. The penny is a lot thicker than the thickness of the mountboard and leaves quite a bit of the thickness of the penny showing above the surface of the mountboard.

I don't know if everyone thinks like me, but when you find that it's not that hard to get the size of the cut out in the mountboard just right, then being able to show a significant amount of the thickness of the penny above the surface of the mountboard could be the presentation that many of us would like to go for.

Obviously embedding the penny into foamboard will produce more grip around the sides of the penny and a larger level of shock would be required to pop the penny out of the foamboard. Also if the mount extends over the edge of the penny, this will normally retain the penny within the foamboard, but I like to see as much as I can of the penny and for me that includes the edge and as much of the sides as possible. I think that both methods are valid and reasonable ways of doing this, but I think that one particular method wins much more on the WOW factor.

It's true that my approach does involve more materials and labour, but it would be interesting to hear some opinions and preferences.

BTW, great discussion subject!

[Tudor Rose]

Having reread the OP the answer to your initial question is Mylar or melinex. This can be bought in a variety of thicknesses, is a superb thing to have in the workshop and extremely versatile. You can cut a "spider" of this to cover the penny, the spider legs feed through the support board behind the penny and are taped down to hold it firmly. If you search melinex spider on this forum you will get lots of hints and tips. This is a method taught by Jim Miller and widely used for exactly this kind of thing.