Coin Jewelry has a long history. How much has our favorite accessory changed?
Coin design and materials change, the size of the coin jewelry changes, how we attach coins to our costumes changes, and how many coins are included in a single piece changes. These changes have kept coin jewelry in the public sphere since time immemorial.
Hidden in the changes are 4 Coin Jewelry Trends that keep us coming back for more.
Coin Jewelry Materials
To make coin jewelry you need coins. Or do you? The history of money starts long before the invention of coins. [1] Cowrie shells are one of the oldest forms of currency used for decoration. Belts and circlets adorned with currency cowrie shells were uncovered at a Neolithic site in Syria. [2] This discovery, one of many, shows us that flashing your cash has been part of human existence for ages.
Metals are the most popular choice and longest-lived trend in coin creation. Whether made of plumb gold, or gold-plated bronze, the love of gold for coins and jewelry continues to make waves in the fashion industry.
Silver is the most widely used metal in coin production history with the longest uninterrupted run. Gold is great, but there is less of it, at least on this planet. This makes the number one metal trend in all coin jewelry history: SILVER!
Coin Jewelry Size
Coin sizes have been relatively uniform since the advent of coins. There are outliers, for example, the largest coin ever made was the Australian Kangaroo One Tonne gold coin. [3] It has an 80cm diameter and is 18cm wide. It’s made of 24k gold and weighs one metric tonne or 2,231 pounds. That’s a little too heavy for my daily bling…
On the other end of the spectrum, the smallest coin probably comes from Medieval India during the Vijayanagara Dynasty under the direction of Bukka Raya the First. [4] He commanded the issue of 4mm, silver Tara coins from 1356-1377.
One of those tiny Tara coins is less than half the size of the Panama proof, 1975, 2-and-a-half centesimos coin photographed with a pencil and ruler below.
Coin Jewelry Settings
The way we include coins in fashion and jewelry design has changed over the centuries. Early coins were carried on leather thongs, not for decorative purposes but for ease of transport. Coins were sewn in clothes for concealment and on clothes for decoration.
Metal setting, by points or bezels, secured coins for stringing on metal chains for as long as people have been making chains.
Since Late Antiquity, gold beads and gold springs held coins in place; coin pendants, circlets, and other coin jewelry items were popular in Ancient Egypt and the Byzantine Empire. [5,6]
How many coins and coin pendants do you want to wear?
When the Chinese population strung holed coins on a leather thong, the purpose was to keep the coins safe. Today we wear coin pendants for other, more sentimental reasons.
In Hellenistic Greece, uneven numbers of coins were made into a single necklace with a larger coin serving as a centerpiece. In the Nordic countries from the 5th to the 17th century single hammered disks called bracteates, very similar to coins, were worn as statement pieces. [7]
Multiple coins, called umlat in Bedouin Arabic, adorn Bedouin jewelry and clothes. [8] Attaching umlat from many trading partners to veils is beautiful and purposeful. The diverse collection of coins sewn to the veil proves the grandness of the vast and sparkling Bedouin trade network.
In recent years, layering coin pendant necklaces has seen a surge in popularity. Which leads us to the fourth and final coin jewelry trend that emerges from ancient coins to modern designs.
The meaning of the coins makes the jewelry. You can wear a single coin pendant to celebrate a single event, or multiple pendants to celebrate all the milestones in your life. The choice is yours.
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Notes:
[1] History of coins.
[2] Neolithic Cowrie shell adornments.
[3] Australian Kangaroo One Tonne coin.
[4] Silver medieval Tara coin.
[5] Coin Jewelry in Byzantium.
[6] A short history of coin jewelry.
[7] What are bracteates?
[8] Bedouin Coin Jewelry.
Pendant and Ring 
What do you think?