Coins as jewelery - Constantine Sirmium 321 AD necklace

I'd previously filed away a picture of this pendant from the Louvre. It features a central medallion of Constantine I made in Sirmium 321 AD (dated by a consular reverse of his sons Crispus and Constantine II), combined with these impressive repousse miniature busts, and laboriously executed openwork lattice.

There's also a similar hexagonal one in the British Museum ...



I only just came across yet another from the Cleveland Museum of Art, this time with two spacers and a jeweled clasp, and finally read the description that ties all these together. It seems these are all from the same piece of jewellery, which consisted of this octagonal Cleveland piece (slightly larger than the rest), two circular pieces and two hexagonal ones. The other circular one is in the Dumbarton Oaks collection. One of the hexagonal pieces appears to either be lost or location unknown. They all contain a central medallion of the exact same type, but from differing dies.



Just for fun I've combined photos of all these pieces (duplicating the BM one) to show what it would have looked like. This must have been a gift for someone at the very highest level.



The openwork designs on these are mostly very similar, but not exact matches. The Dumbarton Oaks piece stands out as oddly crude compared to the others - it has the exact same repousse figures, but the openwork design is simplistic and omits the heart-shaped elements of the others. It's hard to explain this.

Please post anything related.

 

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This jewelry was at the Baltimore Whitman coin show last month. The man told me that it was displayed somewhere, Paris world fair or something? But I was distracted by my daughter telling me she wanted it that I can't remember.

 

Wow, that's a ton of gold! Looks like the coins may all be jeweler's copies and if so, I wonder if they are karat gold or perhaps vermeil instead (to save $$$ and gold). Did the display give any information about this?

Coins as jewelry... I have a Macedonian drachm set in a bezel (modern, of course). The coin itself is very nice and the bezel is 14k. The price? Less than $100! How could I not buy it? The coin alone is worth more than that. I wear it often.


KINGS of MACEDON. Philip III Arrhidaios
struck circa 322-319/8 BCE, Sardes mint
AR drachm in 14k bezel
Obv: head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin
Rev: Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; in left field, TI above bee
Ref: Price P97; ADM I Series XIV

 

WOW! What an incedible set! I assume the bottom two pieces with long pins must be to go in a ladies hair.

 

Fwiw, the guy who had it on display daid they were all original coins.
Earrings, hair pins, necklace and the bracelet.

 

It is of course difficult to tell just from this photo if the coins are original, but the setting of coins is typical of the 19th c. Who could have commissioned such a monumental gold jewellery set, and who could have dared to wear it????

 

I love the Nordic gold bracteate medallion pictured below. It was auctioned by Gorny & Mosch, April 19, 2021 for $88,953.00 !


OSTGOTEN-Nordic Bracteate, c. AD 450-470. AV 17.35 gm, dia. 55 mm.

 

That's amazing - that running figure looks so modern, and so alien compared to what was being produced in the roman empire at than time.

 

Almost two millennia ago, someone in the Barbaricum decided this aureus would best serve as a pendant, perhaps influenced by the Imperial custom which persisted for centuries of awarding gold coin jewelry.

 

These pieces are fascinating! I’ve always wondered if there are any pieces of jewelry like this that we can be fairly certain were owned by an emperor.

I know there is the ring of Caligula that seems to have provenance back to the 1600s and there are items like the Scepter of Maxentius but are there any other items that we know were owned/worn by an emperor?

 

I have a John II Comnenus, Hyperpyron on a pin, Constantinople, first coinage, ca. 1118 - 1122; it can be easily removed but I haven't done it:

and an Antoninus Pius Sestertius, Rome, 150 – 151 AD
RIC III Antoninus Pius 874;



Can't take a clear picture of the reverse:
TR POT XIIII COS III Roma, helmeted, draped, seated left on low seat, holding spear in r. hand and resting left elbow on round shield set on prow on right; in l. hand, a parazonium; S - C; in ex. ROMA

but it is like this one:

 

Here's an insane belt filled with two dozen solidi coins.





With each coin worth probably no less than $2k each, that's $50k just in coin values. Pop in the context as a contemporary belt, and that's an easy $200k for this piece. Likely more

 

This is an incredible piece of Barbarian (Gothic?) jewellery that can easily be dated of the late 4th c. AD, the 380s, as coins are not later than Valentinian and Valens. The large cloisonne disc could be later, for its general design suggests a cross. This coin-belt is displayed at the Getty Villa in Malibu, and they think it dates back from 370-400.
The financial value is not very relevant, IMO. This object is unique and its value in dollars would depend of many factors, mainly if the J. Paul Getty Museum wanted to sell it, which is unlikely, and who would like to buy it...

 

The most miserable (for a change) jewel made with a coin :


The coin is a Trajan Decius of Caesarea Maritima (Israel). Rosenberger 111. Coin diam. AE 16 mm, total weight 6.70 g.

 

That is so interesting! I wonder why the coin wasn't set in different orientation? It makes me think the design had nothing to do with why the coin was made into a pendant. Maybe it was simply about the gold/wealth??

Hmm, but that wouldn't explain this one . Perhaps for this coin the hole was put in the only place it could go without disrupting the devices.

 

It's interesting to see the mix of Julian II (pagan) and Valens (Christian) solidi used there.

Do you have any information about it - where it's on display, and maybe where it was found?

 

After looking through my files I found some interesting info on the Nordic Running Man Medallion from the G & M listing.
"Undoubtedly a highlight of Germanic stamp cutting art of North Germanic origin shaped somewhere between Jutland & Gotland. The bracteate was worn as an amulet, as indicated from the runic script, which can be read as ladu, which means protection. The three small dots on the left and the small circle on the right between the arm and leg could represent eyes, which would additionally confirm the amulet character."
This medallion came to light in the 1980s & was in the F.L.M. Collection for about 30 years.

 

A few more humble examples...

Constantine I VLPP set in a bezel.


Salonina antoninianus with Deae Segetiae reverse.


Tiberius AE18 from Dionysopolis. Holed right through the mouth - ouch!

 

Pictured below is my only piece of coin jewelry, a ring I had made from a $5 gold coin in 1975. It weighs 21.10 gm & has .48 oz. troy of pure gold. In 1975 the ring had a melt value of $68.00 , today it has a melt value of $866.00 .
Edit: Correction made on the weight .

 

Coins that were worn as jewelry/amulets in the roman empire seem to all either have a single hole, as in the examples shown, or an attached suspension loop as often seen on medallions or larger pieces.

In contrast, one of the hallmarks of Roman gold coins (or local imitatives) found in India is that they often have double holes, most likely so they could be joined together into larger assemblies such as belts or bib-style necklaces.



It seems the Romans themselves probably wore coins mostly with some attention as to which emperor or god was depicted on it, while in Indian use the designs didn't matter - it was just a mass of gold as decoration or a display of wealth.