I've done other stuff like that with cheap scrap steel on hand but that is an ingenious method that I never thought of. Those pennies will most likely last longer than my rigs. I wouldn't say it's not legal, you guys would get a pass from me all day long. How many pennies are pissed away into "wishing wells", every year?
If you can put them to an ingenious use outside a gumball machine then so be it.