Making jewelry from ancient coins rarely looks good. The jewelry mountings and the coins never seem to look right together.
This dude is on the Shopping Network at least once a month, dealing mostly in Canadian coins. He made it very clear (like 4 times) that the coin is real. :/ He should've slabbed it and then put it in a necklace setting, very trendy. Erin
I have met Steven on several occasions. He is a nice guy, and quite knowledgable concerning many areas of numismatics. However, I think coin jewelry is a terrible mistake. He does emphasize that no damage happens to the coins, but I still cannot pardon this.
No doubt, Steven knows his stuff and seems like a really nice guy. But, ancient coins and jewelry just don't mix yo. Btw, totally dope, TIF. Erin
I agree that it never looks good. It is hard to understand why. If even one jeweler got it right the rest could figure out how to imitate. Usually a poor coin or cast of a coin is chosen. The coin is polished. A metal that doesn't belong with the coin is used for the border. Here is one that doesn't look too bad: This piece uses a genuine coin from Frank Robinson. The coin wasn't polished. The bezel looks similar in style to the coin. I think jewelers could do a lot better. Here are some earrings that were cast from impressions of an ancient seal. This allows the bezel to match the image. It also helps that the metal's surface was not polished away. This is not a coin but actually looks nice. Jewelers must be in love with over-polished surfaces because they usually choose them. Feast your eyes on this ring: This designer cast a shipwreck coin in silver, applied a patina, then polished the hell out of it. Then a ring was cast in the shape of a shark's jaw. It was also polished to a mirror surface. It does not even look like metal to me.
