Raja Chola Empire Coin Sterling Silver Ring

Ancient Coins & Trading Tokens

Adam traded these from his friend Pradip, whose father was a collector of ancient Indian and Afghani coins. The majority of these pieces originate from the Raja Raja Chola empire (1000 year old coins), and Mughal empire (500 year old trading token).

A trading token was often a weight of metal gold, silver or brass, which was then traded for an item or service. The metal bars were cut by hand and then stamped by the maker. These tokens are brass.

Sterling Silver (925%)

Why do silversmiths use 925%? Measured in parts per thousand, pure silver (999%) is too soft so silversmiths mix it with other metals to make it it harder. The purer the metal, the higher the polish, but it is a lot softer (thus less durable). The harder the metal is, the more hard wearing the jewellery is, but it will also tarnish easier as it has less silver content. Therefore, the silver industry set a standard percentage content for fine silver (925); what we know as "sterling silver". At Two Skies our silversmiths use 925 (sterling) silver for ring shafts and moving parts, and a very high 950% on our stones settings, which enables us to get a strong jewellery item with a beautiful and secure stone setting, without any gluing. Each piece of our jewellery is hand stamped with our Two Skies Hallmark alongside the recognised industry 925 Hallmark.