Lancia Motor Club

My wife, knowing my preoccupation with all things Fulvia, bought me a Roman coin for my birthday.  It portrays Fulvia Plautilla, the only wife of emperor Caracalla.  I haven’t mentioned to her that the nasty blighter had her exiled and then strangled!

I’m thinking of buying one of those wooden gear knobs that has a circular emblem in the top, and replacing the emblem with this coin, ideally set in resin if that can be done. The second picture below shows the type of gear knob I was thinking of.  The vendor offers a range of different emblems so can probably provide the knob without one, to save me the task of removal.

Given that originality is not usually my thing, I’m guessing that somebody else in the club may have had a coin set as a dashboard emblem or, like I’m planning, a gear knob embellishment.

So, I have three questions that I’d appreciate some help with:
1) Has anybody tried anything like this and how did it turn out?
2) Any suggestions for what to set the coin in …. some sort of clear resin?
3) What’s the diameter of the gear lever thread on a S2 Fulvia Coupe?

This little side project will make a nice break from grinding rust off body panels!

I remember resin kits from childhood to make paperweights. If you google around 'resin paperweights' you'll probably find some good information out there on the stuff you need and how to do this.

The obvious drawback to using resin is that it's not going to be sympathetic to your historically valuable coin! Perhaps another route that is more sympathetic is to mount the coin in some suitable medium (black modelers clay, high density foam, thick card etc.) and then put this in the recess of the gear knob. To protect the coin and give a nice finish then consider using a watch glass instead of resin. These are inexpensive and come in a range of sizes and dome shapes; they'd protect the coin and it would be easy to remove and retrieve the coin if you ever changed your mind. A good site to view the vast array of watch glasses there are is https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/watch-glasses (https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/watch-glasses)

That's a great idea.  I was worried about irreversible damage to the coin.  I'll see if there's a watch glass that would fit the circular opening in the gear knob that I'm considering.  Many thanks.

Here's the gear knob ready to fit to the car.  Pity the car won't be ready for it until later this year!
I took Scott's very useful advice and found a domed watch glass.  The coin is held in place with blu-tac and the watch glass is a friction fit.
 

Looks really good Norm, well done!

Love it ! But you'll also need an Augusta

Looks great and you'll always have money for parking if you find a 2000 year old meter. If the blue tack doesn't hold up to vigorous gear changes a little dab of hot glue would also be non-damaging but very solid.

That looks good ... and glad my suggestion proved useful.
Just out of interest did you go for an acrylic or mineral glass dome?
Good luck for getting your Fulvia on the road in 2017.

Simon - good idea, but I think I'll get the Fulvia sorted before I look for the next project! :)
Stanley - thanks for the suggestion ref glue.
Scott - I bought an acrylic one quite cheaply to see how it looked.  I will now look for a mineral glass.