TWENTYTEN: handmade jewelry with valuable coins
Birgit Kempter and Sabine Grunwald founded the jewelry label TWENTYTEN in 2010. The Freiburg women wanted to create a small, unique jewelry collection that was not yet available on the market. After extensive research, they came across ancient coins and decided to capture the beauty of the ancient Greek and Roman coins in precious gold. Thanks to their unique pieces of jewelry and talismans, the valuable coins are preserved for posterity.
After training, many years abroad and a break to have children, the founders of TWENTYTEN , Birgit Kempter and Sabine Grunwald, decided to create a joint jewelry brand. The experienced jewelry and design experts wanted to design pieces of jewelry with heart and soul in goldsmith quality, away from monotonous jewelry. Your products should have lasting values and should tell those who wear them about their experiences.
The idea: one-off jewelry made with historical coins
Intensive market analyzes led them to the niche product of antique coins. The two founders quickly became enthusiastic about the old means of payment and fell in love with the beautiful, ancient coins. This gave birth to her idea of making jewelry from historical coins.
Their demands on quality were high and their production specifications were clear. During production, the coins must be processed carefully and the pieces of jewelry should be unique pieces handmade by goldsmiths. Attractive individual pieces in rose gold or white gold of lasting value that serve as a lucky charm for their owners. Their company philosophy was to give the valuable coins a dignified setting.
The coins are purchased at numismatic auctions
Numismatics means science and hobby at the same time. Private individuals collect coins for various reasons, partly for the joy of collecting, partly because they love old means of payment, partly as an investment. In the context of science, coinage provides social and historical facts. Illustrations of gods, rulers, events, but also embossing technology and the material used reflect contemporary history and provide information about the history of the time. Coins are witnesses to history and valuable remnants of the past.
Trading in antique coins primarily takes place at auctions. For centuries, enthusiasts have traded, bought and sold coins, passing them from one generation to the next. This means that the former coins stand the test of time and act as witnesses to the birth of the West.
The entrepreneurs were eagerly waiting for the next opportunity to visit an auction. They entered the world of numismatics full of curiosity and anticipation. In the auction room it's time to bid and finally: first, second and... third to win the contract. The two designers purchased four coins from which they made a pendant and three rings. At the next auction they showed their valuables and, amazed, the coin collectors suddenly thought their idea was great.
Each coin is carefully set into the pieces of jewelry
The main reason for the U-turn was that the two entrepreneurs did not damage the coins when processing them. The goldsmiths set the coins without soldering or grinding. This means that the coins remain in their original condition, do not lose value and are preserved for posterity. Old coins are not round. The ancients did not cast their coins, but drove them out of a ball with a hammer. The coins therefore differ in their shape and thickness; only the weight determined the monetary value.
TWENTYTEN adapts the frames to the shapes of the coins. Experienced goldsmiths give the selected coins a timelessly elegant appearance. Their unique character and historical value will not be lost. This means that every piece of jewelry is unique. Each of the coins, which are over 2000 years old, tells its own story.
Three collections: TWENTYsome, the signature collection TWENTYten & TWENTYair
The Freiburg brand, founded in 2010, has now launched three collections: the Signature, the TWENTYsome and the TWENTYair collection. The unique collections are handcrafted in factory quality. Created in rose gold or white gold and set with wonderful hand-picked gemstones or diamonds, the individual pieces impress with their timeless elegance.
The Signature Collection
The signature collection TWENTYten consists of timeless unique pieces with antique original coins. Every year, the designers select a special coin for the TWENTYsome series - where “some” currently stands for the year 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 - and create a limited collection with coin replicas made of rose gold or white gold. The irregular shapes of the coins inspired the design of the TWENTYair collection. The Signature collection consists of necklaces, bracelets and rings. The goldsmiths used coins that were over 2,000 years old to create the beautiful unique pieces. A coin shows the image of the goddess Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse. The ancient tetradrachm dates from around 300 BC. The coin lies carefully embedded in a rose gold setting.
Necklaces: Goddess Athena & Owl , Persian King & Pomegranate
Bracelet: Apollo & Victoria
Ring: King Namopad
Pieces of jewelry from the TWENTYten collection
The goddess Athena In Greek mythology, she is the patron goddess and namesake of the Greek capital Athens. She held many functions, including guarding knowledge, being considered the goddess of wisdom, military tactics and strategy, and acting as patron of the arts and sciences. The owl on the reverse side of the coin embodied the ideal of beauty in ancient Greece. Reasons enough to adorn yourself with this wonderful talisman.
The Signature Collection offers an equally exclusive pendant for this exquisite pendant Gold chain with diamonds . The delicate chain is adorned with eight rose diamonds and a natural gray brilliant-cut diamond.
The portrait of a Persian king and a pomegranate adorn a unique one instead of a goddess Signature pendant with a 42 cm long necklace made of 750 rose gold. The Greek hemidrachm is almost 2000 years old. The coin must show a Persian ruler, as the Greeks would never have considered themselves equal to their gods or the animal world. Pomegranates are considered a symbol of love, marriage and fertility.
Two well-known deities adorn the wonderful bracelet made of 750 rose gold from the Signature collection - Apollo and the goddess Victoria. Apollo or Apollon belonged to Greek and Roman mythology. He was one of the twelve main Olympian gods of antiquity and the oracle at Delphi was dedicated to him. Goddess Victoria comes from Roman mythology and was considered the guardian goddess of the emperor and virgin guardian of the empire. This valuable Roman coin survived for more than two millennia; it is a special honor to adorn yourself with this extraordinary relic of antiquity.
A unique creation of the TWENTYten Signature collection is the Rose gold ring with the head of the Persian king Namopad. The son of Artaxerxes from the Archaemenid dynasty adorns the Greek coin, which is over 2,000 years old. Who owns an original from this dramatic period of antiquity?
The TWENTYsome collection
The TWENTYsome collection is an annual tribute to a standout coin. In a limited edition, Birgit Kempter and Sabine Grunwald are re-minting a special coin and giving it an appropriately impressive setting. In contrast to the TWENTYth collection, in which the coins are incorporated into settings, the coins in the TWENTYsome collection come without a special setting. In contrast to the original coins, the re-mintings of the coins are made of gold.
Bracelet: Bracelet with opals & star , Bracelet with Helios & Rose
Necklace: Necklace with Zeus, Athena & diamond eyelet
Jewelery works from the TWENTYsome collection
The magnificent Bracelet TWENTY16 impresses with 26 exquisite opals and carries a replica of a Greek coin from 400 to 350 years before our era. There is a lion on the front and a star on the back. Lions symbolize extraordinary courage, elegance and strength, the star shows the right path at night.
TWENTY17 from the TWENTYsome collection is a handmade bracelet in 750 rose gold with an imprint of a coin with an image of the god Helios. The Greek coin comes from the island of Rhodes. Around 490 – 460 BC In the 4th century BC, the Greek minters immortalized their sun god Helios and the image of a rose on the metal. Helios symbolizes warmth, light and fertility, the rose is a symbol of love. Is there a more impressive engagement or wedding gift?
The god of all gods Zeus adorns the enchanting necklace TWENTY19 . The expressive necklace made of rose gold is a unique, hand-made one-of-a-kind piece. The restrike of the Greek coin shows the father of the gods on the obverse and the goddess Athena on the reverse. Athena symbolizes wisdom and strategy, but is also the goddess of battle, art and crafts. The original coin was created around 50 - 30 BC. BC
The Air collection
The Air collection is different from the other two collections from TWENTYTEN. Only a few pieces of jewelry contain coins. The irregular shapes of ancient coins inspired the design of the decorative elements of the necklace. With the jewelry from this series you can perfectly complement the Signature and TWENTYsome collections.
Copyright photos: TWENTYTEN, Badort
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