Coins as pendants

Just found this in a bag of coins recently aquired.

  I wondered if there are any similar low value current circulation coins that have been made into pendants sitting in collections, or whether people just took them off the chain and spent them.

 I only have one. Shame it happened to such a scarce coin. 

United States 5 (Roman V) Cents 1886 date 

N#3683 

ZacUK

 I only have one. Shame it happened to such a scarce coin. 

United States 5 (Roman V) Cents 1886 date 

N#3683 

 

Ugh. Hate dumb people who do not know the value of these coins..

When this one was made it was probably not much more then 2-3 bucks in today's money, not everyone cares about simple abundant objects that were made to be used.

RegularCoiner

ZacUK

 I only have one. Shame it happened to such a scarce coin. 

United States 5 (Roman V) Cents 1886 date 

N#3683 

 

Ugh. Hate dumb people who do not know the value of these coins..

most people don't know the value of coins. Atleast someone who wasn't a collector admired the beauty of the coin to not spend it and to keep and hopefully cherish it. how dare they be so “dumb” as you put.

(I am firmly in the “do what you want with what you own” camp)

FlyingRedPanda

RegularCoiner

ZacUK

 I only have one. Shame it happened to such a scarce coin. 

United States 5 (Roman V) Cents 1886 date 

N#3683 

 

Ugh. Hate dumb people who do not know the value of these coins..

most people don't know the value of coins. Atleast someone who wasn't a collector admired the beauty of the coin to not spend it and to keep and hopefully cherish it. how dare they be so “dumb” as you put.

(I am firmly in the “do what you want with what you own” camp)

Fair enough XD

Seems that this was quite a widespread practice during the 1800s in the US…

   During the civil war or earlier. Mother would put a hole in a 1 cent coin and put a string though. And gave it to her son. So, her son going off to war could always have a meal. Was even used as a good luck charm. I think that went on up to world war II.  

I have this charm bracelet made of worthless aluminum Vichy dimes

On a similar note, I found this in a bag of coins today…

Only good now for scrap.

You could add it to your belly dancer costume

🤣🤣😮

Mr. Midnight

I have this charm bracelet made of worthless aluminum Vichy dimes

 

Without becoming politic: these coins became worthless after the war, but during the same time, the Vichy past was quite actively forgotten in France. Who would at that time still go around proudly with a bracelet of Vichy coins?

Apart from the numismatic interest that these pendants have, it's also interesting to figure out how and when the coins ended up being pendants, and how the producer/owner must have related to the new object.

The place of the hole is also indicative. Sometimes the hole is nicely at the top, like here, which seems to betray that the coin image was relevant to the jewelry maker, and sometimes the hole is random, as if the coin was some anonymous piece of metal.

ArnoV

Mr. Midnight

I have this charm bracelet made of worthless aluminum Vichy dimes

 

Without becoming politic: these coins became worthless after the war, but during the same time, the Vichy past was quite actively forgotten in France. Who would at that time still go around proudly with a bracelet of Vichy coins?

 

Apart from the numismatic interest that these pendants have, it's also interesting to figure out how and when the coins ended up being pendants, and how the producer/owner must have related to the new object.

The place of the hole is also indicative. Sometimes the hole is nicely at the top, like here, which seems to betray that the coin image was relevant to the jewelry maker, and sometimes the hole is random, as if the coin was some anonymous piece of metal.

It's also interesting to see what they've been attached to, as well as how they've been attached, i.e. the type of connection, links, charms, other items, etc.  

With my chain, the links appear to be silver too, so there has been little wear around the holes over the past 130 years, maybe indicating that this was a significant investment when it was first made.  There are two different countries represented as well (Canada and India), so there may be a colonial connection.  Also, the condition of the coins has remained quite good, so it may not have been used on a daily basis, if at all.  The fact that it is only 4 coins on a relatively short chain seems to indicate it's been broken up, probably due to time and popularity as items like these become unfashionable.  However, the location of the holes on the coins is quite random, so maybe this is more of a homemade job, rather than a purchased item.

LDC

ALLRED1950

 

   During the civil war or earlier. Mother would put a hole in a 1 cent coin and put a string though. And gave it to her son. So, her son going off to war could always have a meal. Was even used as a good luck charm. I think that went on up to world war II.  

I found this a few years ago here in the UK (Thanks Cuz for the loan)…

Thank you for putting one possible explanation to a hole through such a small coin.   😃

LDC63

ALLRED1950

 

   During the civil war or earlier. Mother would put a hole in a 1 cent coin and put a string though. And gave it to her son. So, her son going off to war could always have a meal. Was even used as a good luck charm. I think that went on up to world war II.  

 

I found this a few years ago here in the UK (Thanks Cuz for the loan)…

 

 

 

Thank you for putting one possible explanation to a hole through such a small coin.   😃

With that specific design of the 3 cent there, I believe I read somewhere that they made stylish earrings.

holed coins are dead common, the world over, prior to the 20th century century, clothes didnt have reliable pockets. 

leathern purses were expensive, so ordinary people kept their money on lines. this meant boring  a hole in each coin and threading it onto your line, this could be made of gut, or leather, or iron wire, and which was knotted and worn around the neck.

Mr. Midnight

holed coins are dead common, the world over, prior to the 20th century century, clothes didnt have reliable pockets. 

leathern purses were expensive, so ordinary people kept their money on lines. this meant boring  a hole in each coin and threading it onto your line, this could be made of gut, or leather, or iron wire, and which was knotted and worn around the neck.

 

It didn’t affect the value of a precious metal coin? So for instance a three cent of silver would still be three cents, hole  or no hole?

33doubleeagle

Mr. Midnight

holed coins are dead common, the world over, prior to the 20th century century, clothes didnt have reliable pockets. 

leathern purses were expensive, so ordinary people kept their money on lines. this meant boring  a hole in each coin and threading it onto your line, this could be made of gut, or leather, or iron wire, and which was knotted and worn around the neck.

 

It didn’t affect the value of a precious metal coin? So for instance a three cent of silver would still be three cents, hole  or no hole?

It sounds like if keeping money on lines was such a common occurance, I doubt people would have much issue with worrying about a hole in it. 

Indeed, it seems that when you start to look there are plenty of them about.  Just found these in a charity shop in Sussex.

Notice the error with the 6 on the 1 pfennig's date (pity about the hole !!)

Just found all of these over the weekend in a bag of mixed coins and tokens…

I can understand why the 2 shilling coin has a hole in it (maybe for use in a phone box), but why the Q. Dollar and Half Penny?  Not sure about the Burmese coin, but I love the makeshift link. 😃

Found this a few months back, but still not sure what exactly the individual token coins are or where they come from.  It's very roughly put together, so probably home made.  I will eventually get round to removing the solder that holds them together and the clip in place.