Recently, I have started to 3d print a variety of coins. I’m going to share the process here for myself and anyone else who might be interested.

First, I use OpenSCAD or TinkerCAD to create a 40x40x2 mm cylinder, which I use as the base of the coin. I initially used 3D Builder, but had trouble figuring out how to remove the interior of the object to prepare it for 3d printing.

I initially made curved text using the “text_on” library for OpenSCAD, and have also used the text feature in TinkerCAD, but that only provides straight text.

For imagery, I had good results with the following ChatGPT prompt:

Can you create an image suitable for embossing on a coin that depicts a "<whatever>"? <Another sentence with further description of the image>. It needs to have strong outlines and broad fills, and needs to be only two colors

Then I take that image an put it into Inkscape, then use Path>Trace Bitmap, which converts the bitmap into a vector graphic. I then save the SVG and use TinkerCAD to emboss the image onto the base coin. I initially extruded the embossing, but have found that the coin looks better to me with the embossing as an impression (cut out). I emboss each side with a 0.5 mm impression.

My current “best” layout is an image filling one side of the coin and the text on the other side.