I originally thought that I would just add black and white photos and cover with glass but changed the plan once I realized that I was going to use the metal legs from our existing table. To tie in the metal legs, I decided that the top must also be metallic and so pennies became the plan.
I wasn't too confident in the outcome so I got some plywood cut to fit the top of the table. My thought was that if I started and didn't like it, I hadn't ruined the top of the table.
I started off by spray painting the plywood black and gluing the pennies on.
I started with Gorilla Glue, which I do not recommend because it swelled once it dried and starting spilling from beneath the pennies. You can see it a little bit in the picture. I tried coloring on it with black marker which I also would not recommend because once covered the pennies with epoxy it became a greenish color and I now LOATHE that end of the table and try to keep it covered with remotes.
Here's a picture of all the pennies on and the insert in table. I later decided to fill the edges with half pennies. I had my husband cut pennies in half with pliers (I could not muster up the arm strength). For the table, I sanded down the sides and stained them to make the table two toned. I love the effect!
To finish it off, we covered the pennies with bar epoxy. Now drinks can be set on the top without concern of tarnishing the pennies.
