Help & Support
Are the chips printed on one or both sides?
Because of the print stability, it is considerably easier to print the chips only on one side.
It is almost impossible to print “into the air” halfway well. Therefore, one side is always smooth.
Declaration
A 3D printer cannot produce double-faced coins with the same physical properties as real coins because:
- Layered structure:
- 3D printers work with a layered construction of the material. If one side is already embossed, the other side is built on it, resulting in a flat or inaccurate structure.
- Especially with FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers, the second side would not be sharp because the underside either rests on the printing plate or would have to be supported by supporting structures.
- 3D printers work with a layered construction of the material. If one side is already embossed, the other side is built on it, resulting in a flat or inaccurate structure.
- Especially with FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers, the second side would not be sharp because the underside either rests on the printing plate or would have to be supported by supporting structures.
- Missing embossing technique:
- Real coins are made by embossing, with high pressure pressing metal into a mold. This creates sharp details on both sides.
- 3D printers deposit material layer by layer, which does not achieve the plastic deformation typical of embossing.
- Material quality:
- Metals used for coins have different mechanical properties than most 3D printing materials (e.g. plastics or powder metals in the SLS process).
- Even metal 3D printing techniques (e.g. SLM, DMLS) could produce a coin, but not with the same precision and double embossing as a real embossed coin.
- Printing support:
- In 3D printing, a coin requires a support surface or support structures. As a result, one side of the coin could not be embossed cleanly or would have to be reworked.
Solution:
To make a coin minted on both sides, it would be better to print it on one side first and then either:
- subsequently milling or embossing the second side
- print and assemble two halves
- Casting process (e.g. making a wax model with a 3D printer and then casting).