Coin Battery

We are going to be making a battery out of coins. This batter will not contain much power, but if you choose, you can light up a small LED light for a couple hours with this battery.

For the supplies you are going to need:

6-8 Pennies

6-8 Nickels

Paper Towels

1/4 c. White Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Salt

Mix the White Vinegar and the Salt in a small bowl and stir until the salt is dissolved.

Next you need to cut small squares out of the paper towel that are the same size or slightly smaller than the pennies. These are going to eventually end up in between the pennies and nickels, so it is important that they are small enough so that the corners can not touch the layer below if they sag down. For size reference, one of the squares in my picture is laying on top of a penny to demonstrate.

Next all you are going to want to do is simply soak all of the paper towel squares you cut out into the salt and vinegar mixture. Just get them to absorb enough so they are visibly wet all around, do not leave them in the mixture for too long.

To assemble the stack, start with a penny on the bottom. Then, add a soaked paper towel square on top and then a nickel on top of that. Repeat this process of adding one type of coin, a soaked paper towel square, and the other type of coin until you have used either 6, 7, or 8 pennies and nickels. The order should go penny, soaked paper towel, nickel, soaked paper towel, penny, etc. It is key here to have the same amount of each coin in the stack. Also, it key that if the stack starts with a penny it ends with a nickel. This should be the case if you use the same amount of coins.

Once your stack is complete, it should look something like this. Now that your battery is complete, you may test it if you choose. You can either use a multimeter to get a reading of how much energy this small battery is able to put out or you can attach a small LED by touching each of the prongs to a separate end of the battery and it should light up the LED for a few hours at least.