Coins, silver and spoons have a long intertwined history. For several hundred years silver objects were simply another form of wealth. A person who had amassed more silver coins than they needed, took the coins to a silversmith who melted them down and made a usable object out of them. If economic hardship ensued, the reverse procedure was used and the silver objects were returned to coinage form.

It was felt that a silver object offered more protection against theft since it was more easily recognizable than a coin. Also it served a useful purpose whereas a coin could only be hidden until it was needed. Furthermore, it was possible to display ones "wealth" without simply putting a pile of coins in the cupboard. The value of the workmanship was considered secondary to the value of the metal. (Times have changed considerably and the value of labor is now much higher than the value of the silver metal).

The word "sterling" is believed to come from the German word "esterling" which was used to denote a level of purity of silver coins used by the Austrian Hapsburg kings (and you thought it came from England).

In the late 1790's a trend was started in England to embed a silver coin into a silver object so that one would know the purity of the metal. A hundred years later a massive souvenir spoon frenzy swept around the world. During this time period, a number of spoons were created with old (or modern) coins . 

In the numismatic world, condition of a coin is very critical to its value. Once a coin has been bent or soldered to make a spoon it loses ALL of its numismatic value. The numismatic value of a coin cannot be compared to a spoon bearing a coin and spoons will sell for considerably less than a nice equivalent coin. Many of the coins pictured are dated and some may be hundreds of years old. The spoons were often  made during the 1890 -1920  time period. At that time there was not a very active collector market for these old coins and the spoon makers turned them into a commercial product rather than melting them. The age of the coin is NOT a good guide to its value.

This display is  NOT exhaustive. There are many variations of souvenir coin spoons which I have not researched nor reproduced.

Visit the ancient Greek and Roman spoon exhibit

Visit the embedded coin exhibit (showing English, Brazilian, Danish spoons)

Visit the USA coin exhibit

Visit the world coin exhibit (Venitian ducats and Theresa thaler)

Visit the unusual Tiffany made Japanese coin spoon

Visit the Australian coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Netherlands coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Canada love token coin spoon exhibit

Visit the British coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Italian coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Austria and Tyrolean Rebellion exhibit

Visit the modern Greek coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Latvian coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Russian coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Holy Roman Empire coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Vatican spoon exhibit

Visit the Peru coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Ecuador coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Spain coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Spanish Trade  Dollar exhibit

Visit the German coin spoon exhibit

Visit the German  East African coin exhibit

Visit the Haiti coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Colombia coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Venezuelan coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Swiss coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Mexico coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Cuba coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Guatemala coin spoon exhibit

Visit the South American coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Brazil coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Costa Rica coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Iran Coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Turkey Coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Islamic coin spoon exhibit

Visit the India coin spoon exhibit

Visit the France coin spoon exhibit

Visit the Iceland coin spoon exhibit

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Denmark

This very interesting spoon is marked as being "handsmede" by G.G.L. It is obviously in the "arts and crafts" style and is quite a nice piece




ARABIC

The top spoon is a filigree with a silver coin bowl from Yemen

The bottom piece is a filigree tong with coin bowls from Yemen

I suspect that this coin bowl spoon is from Saudi Arabia, but all the markings are Arabic and I can't read that language. I thought the knife /sword was cute, however.

An interesting little spoon with a veiled Arabic woman and a coin bowl








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