Featured PERANAKAN SILVER COIN BELT W/BUCKLE

Discussion in 'Silver' started by Shangas, Jan 8, 2025 at 10:33 PM.

  1. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    Yes, I bought another one.

    I've never had a Peranakan silver coin-belt, before. I know they exist, and I've seen photos of them, but I've never actually held one, before now, that is. I've always wanted one of these, so I'm super excited!!

    Bought it from a dealer in Singapore who had held onto it for years. It's made from antique (800 silver) Straits Settlements coins (20c & 50c), which date between 1887 - 1896.

    The S-buckle is unmarked, but it looks like silver, and has a fish engraved on it.

    The first two photos are the seller's pictures, and the last two are mine, taken after giving it all a thorough polish to remove the grime from the silver...

    472336808_1157873166338961_3691812224921762818_n.jpg 472435014_1157873219672289_651148876324042351_n.jpg 472620728_1163734312419513_9000407246482940027_n.jpg 472709014_1163734269086184_4685618251046637856_n.jpg
     
  2. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    does it fit ? :playful::playful:

    nice find !;)
     
    Marote likes this.
  3. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    HAHA!! No!!

    The only Peranakan belt I have which DOES fit is one of my ancestors' ones (the one that you see in my profile-pic).

    The other belts I have are far too small. They were almost all made for women, which accounts for the size (men did wear them too, but not as often), and usually when they were very young, which is why they're so short.
     
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  4. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    Thanks.

    It's summer in Australia right now, so I'm mostly wearing sarongs around the house, because of the heat.

    Here's me wearing the belt that you see in my profile picture...

    PXL_20250109_045733284.MP~2.jpg

    ...there's rings incorporated into the silver chain, which act like belt loops, so you can adjust the fit. But this is how they would traditionally been worn.
     
  5. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    Presto! Your new belt is now a necklace. Right? Nice find!
     
    Marote likes this.
  6. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    Hah!! It'll be a heavy necklace!! Here it is on the scale...

    PXL_20250109_033821493.jpg
     
  7. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    There once was a man from Australia,
    with Peranakan silver, and he'd tell ya
    how it was made & where it was from,
    and he'd wear it , as part of his regalia !!

    ;)..:playful::playful:
     
  8. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    Keeping in touch with your Irish roots, are yah, laddie?

    But yeah, coin belts like these were basically the lower-end of Peranakan silver belts. They were extremely popular, so families would scrape together any spare silver change coinage, and turn them into belts like these. I've sen some which are more elaborate, I've seen ones which are simpler. If you couldn't afford this (or a chain belt like the one in my picture), then the "last resort" was to buy a nickel belt, plated in silver, but that was really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    Belts made of gilt brass also existed, although I've never personally come across one.
     
    Marote and komokwa like this.
  9. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    more like Anglo - Saxon.......... but who's counting !!:hilarious:
     
    Marote likes this.
  10. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    The collection as of today...

    472620008_1163905049069106_8866010059159448671_n.jpg

    ...so that makes the collection fully 2/3 solid silver.
     
  11. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    Great collection, Shangas.:)
    Clearly lower end, but with a very nice visual impact. Something for everyone, as it should be.
    Nice fishy on the clasp for fertility and prosperity, a good start for a Peranakan marriage.;)
     
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  12. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    I have a NA leather and silver hatband that I was once skinny enough to wear as a belt! Ah, the good old days.
     
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  13. Shangas

    Shangas Underage Antiques Collector and Historian

    Thanks. I actually find the coin-belts extremely interesting, just because they're so customisable. They were made of literally whatever coins the nyonya (or more likely, her father or husband) had lying around, and could scrape together, and save, to turn into a belt. I've seen them made of old Chinese coins, old Straits coins, and old Dutch coins (because of Dutch East Indies, etc). There's no one specific way to make them, because they were all handmade, according to the desires or imagination of the commissioner - the silversmith just did whatever, and knocked it together for them.

    I like to think that this is the sort of thing that my great-grandfather was doing, 120-odd years ago...which he probably was.
     
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  14. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    I have a few Malaysian coin buttons, made of Dutch East Indies coins.
    It is all one big cultural area, and many people traveled and even migrated from Indonesia to Malaysia/Singapore and vice versa.

    I also have a very nice Indonesian bib necklace and dainty bracelet made of Dutch East Indies coins. I wear them so the Kawi and Jawi scripts are showing, not the Latin script.
     
  15. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    The best I can do is a UK sweetheart piece made of aluminum and silver George V threepenny coins. The coins were bent and pierced to fasten on. Worth not much, but it's fun.
     
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