In the precious metal crowd at #silvergoldstackers we usually talk about stacking gold/silver. "Stacking" in this case meaning something like "gathering". For this post I want to be much more literal and look at stacking coins!

Probably most of us have stacked up coins before out of boredom. Usually this is just stacks of coins, like Ebenezer Scrooge counting his gold coins, maybe sometimes other simple stacks. It's just something to do when we otherwise have nothing to do. Something to pass the time with, in other words.

A few years back, a Japanese Twitter user by the name of Tanu posted some amazing stacking creations. Well, he still does. You can follow him on Twitter here.

(all photos are from his Twitter account)

Not only does he have a lot of patience to make these things, but a steady hand and lots of time for practice because you see, he also includes balancing in his stacking.

He must also either be single or have a very understanding partner, because I'm sure he's broken more than a few cups/mugs/glasses in this stacking attempts. But when everything works out, at least long enough to snap a photo, it looks magical!

He seems to mostly use 1 yen coins for his stacking. 1 yen coins are tiny. A little smaller than a US penny. They are made of alumin(i)um so they are very very light. Light enough that they can float on water. This probably makes the coin a great choice for some of his stacking. Whenever balancing is involved, he seems to move to heavier coins. I guess that makes sense.

There are many more on his Twitter account. I won't link to any more, so go there if you want to see more.

I don't keep many coins. In Japan, cash and coins are still so common that we all carry around coin purses and tend to try to get rid of coins first before breaking bills, so my coin purse never gets too full. But I do happen to have a few here. Let's see what I can stack with these!

And voilà!

Un chef-d'œuvre incroyable!

Are any of you into coin stacking? Do you have any masterpieces to share?

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.