Oriental characters or abstract?

No maker's mark

 

They are renditions of characters and probably mean something like 'Wealth' or 'Health' or 'Banzai'.

Since there are two it probably means 'Long Life' or 'Good Fortune'

 

1960s cuff links? Looks like.

 

It's interesting that they're not exactly the same.

 

??

They look the same to me.
Slightly different angle on them. but that's all i see.

 

Look closely at the characters. They're the same characters but with lots of little differences in how they're drawn.

 

They look like the design was hand cut and then soldered to the backing.

 

It does look like there are seams where pieces are butted up against each other. That's a lot of work for a pair of cufflinks. Maybe someone made their own?

Maybe it was POW or internment camp work. Or maybe just some hobbyist.

 

In hand, I thought they looked identical - machine made design

I didn't notice the differences until seeing the pics

They really look like silver. Right tarnish and all. But they don't sound like silver.

 

They could be artisan stuff. A lot of good Navajo and Zuni work is done like that. It's cut by hand so two matching pieces don't.

 

It looks like a graphic art, 1960s, Japanese font to me, but the Koreans were using similar styles in the 60s. I don't read either and I am not an expert. You know, there is a long tradition of calligraphy as art in Japan, so artistic, brush stroke or expressive calligraphy even from the 19th cent. can actually look quite modern.

The idea that this was made in the American internment camps (from melted dimes) isn't too far fetched, but I wonder if making art that used secret Japanese code symbols was wise while you were being held in a government prison for possible treason.

 

Terry, the characters look very similar to the Japanese characters of the following sterling cufflinks.
http://www.rubylane.com/item/727534-17447/Vintage-Japan-Japanese-Sterling-Silver-Kanjii

aaand look at the Japanese characters on these cufflinks:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/184844478/1950s-vintage-retro-jade-gold-plate?ref=market

Gee, if would have been nice if one of them told us what the characters stood for.

--- Susan

 

The fact that you can't read it, the fact that I can't read it, hardly makes it secret code. It just makes us illiterate in Japanese.

 

The seller of the following set of cufflinks with the same characters say "happiness" in Chinese!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/191770815/sterling-silver-chinese-characters?ref=market

--- Susan

 

I don't know that would have recognized those as the same characters, but I believe they are.

 

That was an literary device. I was describing it in the words that would have been used by the guards at said camp, because undoubtedly, most prisoners would not want to raise their ire or alarm, which carving symbols in a language they can't read might do.

 

I went through a whole bunch of Japanese alphabets and couldn't even find the first character

 

Yes, but they could still be Japanese, because this Chinese symbol is also used in Kanji.

 

See also:
Happiness : Japanese Calligraphy Gallery

 

Just as many hits have the same thing meaning fortune

Maybe money equals happiness in Japan