For decades, Dunedin youngsters would line up to swim in the former Dunedin Municipal Tepid Baths, in lower Moray Pl.
While waiting in line, it was popular for the children to make holes in the Oamaru stone of the security building next door by turning their pennies in the walls.
The baths opened in 1914 and closed in 1964, with the completion of Moana Pool.
Poet Peter Olds and sculptor Peter Nicholls began collaborating on a project to permanently mark the tradition in April last year.
"It's been kind of surreal, really, because as a kid in the '50s I used to go to the tepid baths and line up outside like everybody else," Olds recalled yesterday.
"Everybody used to turn their pennies in the wall while they were waiting for the session to begin. It just became a tradition.
"It has a connection with people of a certain age. [Dunedin Mayor] Peter Chin was very interested in the project.
"Peter's family had the Octagon fish supply shop and we used to go and get thruppence worth of chips there after we'd been to the baths."
The $6130 project was created by fixing three large pieces of perspex over the coin marks.
Olds wrote a poem last year for the project called Holes in a Sandstone Wall, which has been engraved in one of the perspex sheets.
A hundred kids on Saturday afternoon.
Wait in line for the tepid baths to open.
Pushing, shouting, slouching against the wall.
Like sailors in Davy Crockett hats.
Turning pennies in the wall's soft stone.
"When I came here from Auckland 30 years ago, I used to see these holes everywhere and wondered what they were, " Nicholls, who is chairman of the Otago Sculpture Trust, said.
"I wanted to collaborate with a poet on something that resonated with the history and culture of Dunedin. Something to do with the spirit and soul of the city," he said.
"It's brought back memories for a lot of people. We've had people walking past and saying `One of those holes is mine'."
Otago Polytechnic product design lecturer Mike Wilson also worked on the project, developing a technique to suspend the coins with a fine copper wire.
The artists paid tribute to the Dunedin City Council, the Dunedin Heritage Festival Committee, the Otago Sculpture Trust and building owner Lochie Chisholm for encouraging the project.
