BOMAcoins are a stealth product for the Inkling Pen Company - even more so since we've sold out. I wanted to have an object I could carry and play with that didn't have potentially catastrophic consequences if dropped. A coin seemed to fit the bill and would have the extra feature that it would spin nicely and, speaking frankly, would feel like a gold coin (which is also why I put the coin's weight in troy ounces on the coin).

The design was straightforward. One side is simply brand advertising (Inkling Pen Company), the back is product advertising (BOMApen specific). The BOMA laser engraved on the coin is exactly the same artwork used on the Pens but it's about nine times the size. The twelve-sided edge is a reference to base 12 and to time. It also makes the coin very likely to land BOMA side up when spun (thus incanting "WRITE NO EVIL").

That was the whole idea until they were made. Once spun. however, a wonderous and unanticipated feature appeared: When spun on a flat smooth surface like glass, the BOMAcoin spolls in a vigorous and noisy fashion until it reaches a bizarre "ray-gun like" crescendo as it stops. Here's what it sounds like (warning 388k download).

It turns out that there's a toy called Euler's disk that spins even longer than BOMAcoins but its ray-gun sound isn't quite as dramatic.