1920s Silver Afghan coin necklace. The five coins are of high Silver content, 90% to 92%, and probably would have been transformed into tribal jewellery not long after their minting, probably to be used as ornamentation sewn onto a scarf or headdress. Unlikely these 1920s Silver coins were minted in Afghanistan at that time, when some independence from Great Britain had only just been achieved. They would have been minted for Amanullah Khan in either British India or Persia.
The 1920s Silver coins constitute the only Afghani element in the above necklace, also the only antique element, for the Silver rope chain, the granulated Silver spacers and the 6mm round London-made plain Silver bead spacers have all been created in the contemporary period, the necklace as a whole imagined and created in Sydney in 2025.
Note: while as of the second half of the year 2025, the record-breaking elevation of the world Gold price has attracted much commentary, the price of Silver is also rising inexorably, up 50% in the last year. At 36 grams weight, the above 1920s Silver Afghan coin necklace is priced at a little under $11 gram before GST. The queues outside bullion shops around the world are not there just to buy Gold.
The Silver rope chain has an interesting and clever facet, namely that one end of the chain can be screwed off, the end without the spring clasp. That ending of the chain, and the inside of the sleeve of its capping are rifled. Holding the chain firmly and unscrewing the capping to the left will do the trick. A word of warning, however: it is an exercise requiring some care, for the rifling on the chain’s end would be easy to damage.