Coin necklace

The necklace is made of brass plates – decorated with geometric patterns – joined alternately with brass rings from which 12 coins are hanging. The outermost plates are connected with a long, double-folded red ribbon that allows to adjust the length of the necklace. The coins, present here as a decorative element, were used as small change in Austria-Hungary between 1892 and 1918. At that time the monarchy's main unit of currency was the Krone, which was divided into 100 Hellers in Austria – and 100 fillérs in Hungary. In our necklace, eleven coins have a face value of 10 Hellers, one – of 10 fillérs. They come from the years 1893–1895, 1908–1909, and 1915–1916. Most of them (11 coins) were minted in Vienna, while only the 10 fillérs come from Kremnica – as evidenced by the “KB” signature (lack of markings on the others indicates the Vienna mint). The presented necklace, called zgarda, comes from the village of Kosmach, located in what is now Ukraine, in the Kosiv Raion (district) of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (during the Second Polish Republic the village belonged to the Kolomyia District of the Stanisławów Province). Museum records show that the necklace belonged to Jadwiga Szeligowska of Nowy Targ since 1935 and has been donated by her to the MEK collection in 1957