The Washington herald., 1911-12-04
MAKING JEWELRY
OUT OF u. 5. COINS
Is a Ticklish Business for
the Jewellers.

The use of coins in jewelry is not so
popular to-day as it was once, say the
jewelers.. Nevertheless, coins are still
used to some extent in this way, and
that is why jewelers. were interested in
a report from Denver recently that out
there the local head of the Secret Service
had received orders from the Treasury
Department in Washington to see that
the Federal statute regarding the deface-
ment of current coins was enforced.
This law, which is section $50 of the
Revised Statutes, has Been a sort Of buga-
boo for jewelers. for many years, because
from time to time the use of certain coins
in jewelry has been a fad. and not every
jeweler has been aware just to what ex-
tent II came within the law. For in
stance, a man may have one of the old
gold dollars and have a hankering to
wear it on his watch chain. The simplest
way of doing this is to take it to a Jewell
er and get him to punch hole in it.
No doubt there are a good many people
who would be surprised at the curt re-
fusal they would get from most jewelers.
II such a request were made. Should a
jeweler accommodate you the Secret Serv-
ice man who caught you wearing that
punctured coin on your watch chain
could put you in jail and the Jeweler, too,
and ii wouldn't make bit OF difference
how old the coin was you were wearing.
Curlously enough, you would be In the
same class with the counterfeiter and
the man who plugs coins.
Not long ago, when the Lincoln cents
first came out, some of the jewellers,
struck by the artistic merit of the coins
and the popularity they met with,
thought 1t would be a nice thing to make
use of them as jewelry. Their idea was
to gild them, to be used for watch charms
and brooches and pins.
Against the Law.
Then some of them happened to think
of the law and decided to find out how
far they could go. In response to a letter
written to District Attorney Wise, Mr..
Wise sent back word that it was his
habit not to give opinions, but to act only
on complaints, and in this case for the
benefit of the jewelers. he would Just
quote the law to them. The law he quot
ed says that any person commits a crime
who 'fraudulently, by any art, way, or
means defaces, mutilates, impairs. d.
minishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens"
the gold and silver coins of the United
States. While this made no mention of
copper coins, the jewelers. concluded not
to embellish the popular Lincoln cents in
any way, and there the matter stands.
1t often happens that somebody digs up
a gold or silver coin Of ancient vintage
and gets a desire to have his monogram
nicely engraved on 1t for use as an orna-
ment. jewelers. frequently get requests
to do such work, but there again the law
comes in. Cutting a monogram on a coin
iIghtens it, and again brings you into the
class of those who tamper with the cur
Tency.
Different Proposition.
On the other hand, suppose you asked
a jeweler to cut a gold dollar in the shape
of a diamond and make a stick pin out
of It. This he would gladly do and with
such a pin in your scarf you could walk
into the Treasury building at Washington
itself without fear Of molestation.
OF course you would have lightened
your gold piece, but you would also have
destroyed It completely as a coin. In a
hard-up moment you couldn't use your
stick pin for car fare as you could your
watch charm with your initials on it. In
one case Uncle Sam wouldn't have a
word to say, and in the other he could
clap you in Jail.
One concern has for years made a spe-
cialty OF making coins into jewelry, but
1t is done in a way that doesn't disturb
Uncle Sam bit. This concern has a
process by which the head on a coin is
driven out In this condition the heads
are mounted on pins and made up in
brooches and charms, even 10-cent pieces
BEING used. By the process the piece is
destroyed as a coin. Before embarLInE
on this, however, the concern took pains
to see that II came within the law.