The pendant on the twisted black silk cord, with the open ring above the coin

Collection Monete Romane·Pendente

Oxidized silver pendant with Roman coin reproduced under a hammered ring

Name: Oxidized silver pendant with Roman coin reproduced under a hammered ring
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: PA191AG
Price: 120.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Thirty-five millimeters tall, and half of that is the open ring sitting above the coin.

€120,00 PA191AG

Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.

Above the coin there is an open silver ring, as wide as the coin itself, and the cord passes through that: it is the part that lengthens the pendant and that sets it apart from the others in the family, where the silk passes through a small ring instead. The ring is hammered on the face and stays open in the middle, so the black of the cord shows through. The coin hangs below, inside a bezel that is hammered as well: it is oxidized silver, with the black left in the recesses and the raised work polished back, and on it you read a head in profile with a laurel crown and a row of Latin letters along the edge. Turning the pendant over there is the other face, with a seated figure and more letters.

Six grams of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths in all: it is the lightest piece in the family and at the same time the tallest — twenty millimeters wide by thirty-five tall, counting the ring. The necklace measures forty-one centimeters and fastens with a button. It is also the only one of the eight that the company supplies with a certificate of characteristics. The coin is a reproduction of a Roman coin; which one is not stated, and we do not add it. It comes in its own gift box.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

6,00 gramsSilver 925‰ — frame, ring and coin

Metals: Silver 925‰
Finish: Hammered frame and ring · oxidized silver coin
Dimensions: Pendant 20 × 35 mm · length 41 cm
Technique: Made entirely by hand in the company's studio: the open ring shaped and hammered, the hammered bezel closed onto the edge of the coin, the coin reproduced in silver and oxidized, the silk cord with a button fastening.

The pendant shot lower down, in three-quarter view

The coin from the front: the laureate head and the letters along the rim, inside the hammered bezel

The other side of the coin and the inside of the open ring, with the hallmark

The pendant worn, resting below the neckline

How it is made

The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.

Reproduced Roman coin: The coin is not ancient: it is the reproduction of a Roman coin, made in bronze or in silver depending on the piece. What is reproduced is a low relief — a head in profile, a few letters round the edge — and in a low relief a tenth of a millimeter is the whole difference between a profile that reads and a smudge. The blank that comes out is not a flat disc: it is higher at the center than at the edge, and the edge itself is not an exact circle. That is what decides the mount. The frame closes on the edge, where the metal is steadier and where there is no design to cover, and it is tightened cold — a flame passed over the field of the coin would flatten the very relief it is being mounted for, and a flattened relief does not rise again.
Oxidizing: The silver is darkened on purpose, and then polished back only where the light has to return. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the light on the raised work: it is a drawing made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Hammered frame: The frame is hammered once it has already been shaped, and every blow leaves a crooked facet that catches the light on its own. There is no design to follow: you keep the rhythm and stop before the edge thins, because beaten metal spreads and gives exactly where it has been struck most often. That is why no two frames ever come out identical, and why the last blow is decided by looking, not by counting.

I don't look at what others are doing: I would rather create in my own style. That is what makes our jewelry recognizable.
Fabio Gori — Anna Gioielli, Tosi

Made for you

Every piece leaves the bench made to order: sizes and details are agreed before the work begins.

The goldsmith's workshop is also the place where made-to-measure jewellery is created and family pieces are restored: if you have an idea, or something you want brought back to how it was, that is where it starts.

Ask for a made-to-measure piece

Made by

Anna Gioielli

A goldsmith's workshop in Tosi, on the slopes of the Pratomagno: Anna opened it in 1988, her sons Fabio and Francesco carry it on. Piercing, repoussé, chasing and burin engraving — the Florentine school, with the workshop in full view of the shop.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli