I used some Minwax Red Chestnut stain that
I already owned to quickly stain the wood circle. One coat of stain was all it needed to match the pennies. I wasn’t interested in making all the pennies look perfectly brand new, so I gave them a quick cleaning, no brushing or scrubbing involved. After dry-fitting the first row, I started gluing. I went with hot glue. Despite the stringy mess hot glue creates, I figured that minor annoyance was better than gluing my fingers together with super glue.