O O O
 O O O
O O O

nearby pennies touching. By the fewest number of legal moves, transform the pattern into the pattern

   O
  O O
 O   O
O O O O

nearby pennies touching. A legal move consists of sliding a penny, not picking up a penny, without disturbing the other pennies, to a new position touching at least two pennies.

  ABC

 DEF

GHI

1) move F above A and B

2) move E between C and I 

3) last move c down by I

Now it looks like this:

   F

  AB

 D_E

GHIC

I think that is what it looks like.

From Jen