CONNECTICUT ARTISAN CRAFTS JEWELRY FROM COINS

These unique wedding rings might have once been someone’s loose change jingling in their pocket.

But that is immaterial to David Landino who meticulously cuts, hammers, files and heats each coin to create one-of-a-kind heirloom rings.

Whether it’s change that has been in circulation or coinage that holds more value, such as a U.S. Sterling Silver Morgan Dollar, each ring is unique and made to very exact specifications.

The company slogan is “Coins from generations past, rings for generations to come.”

And, Landino is prepared to create the next heirloom from possibly a collector’s item. His tool box includes a jeweler’s saw, leather and nylon hammers, steel ring sizing mandrel, ring stretcher, sandpaper and a blow torch.

“The difference in patinas here is that date’s (facing) out,” Landino explains holding a Morgan silver dollar ring, ordered from his company, D.L. Heritage Coin Rings & Handmade Jewelry, for a wedding in Jamaica this month. “The date is showing.”

Whether the date is visible while sitting on a finger or “In God We Trust. The United States of America” is showing on the ring, the inside displays the opposite side of the coin.

“I keep the detail on the obverse and reverse, is what the official terms of the coins are,” he explains. “They’re crisp throughout, so you don’t lose any of the detail. It just depends on what you want to see mostly.”

“He’s so meticulous about his work,” says Guilford resident Mary Amter. “It has to be perfect if he’s giving it to someone.”

“Really for me, it is about the value of the coin, but more so it’s about ‘this coin from 1909, who else could have held that coin in their hand at that time?’ For me that makes it a big deal,” he explained while turning an antique 1909 coin ring in his hand.

Now at 43 years old, Landino’s personal collection consists of 1700 and 1800 U.S. large cents, American pennies, dating back to when coins were minted at 1 1/8 inches diameter.

He got the idea for D.L. Heritage Coin Rings after he lost his ring on Palm Sunday 2013.

Upon finding out the cost of a replacement Landino decided that making a ring would be much less expensive. He began by making “a tapped ring.”

“You take a silver coin and you tap the outer rim with a spoon. The more you do it the more it starts to cave in on itself. Then you bore a hold in the center and you keep doing it, and you keep doing it.” Landino notes this work is repetitive, but relaxing.

“It was something that the troops used to do in WWI, WWII to combat boredom when they had nothing to do.”

While the ring Landino wears on his left hand is now a brand new wedding band, he has continued making rings, albeit more sophisticated than his first attempt.

The majority of the rings are made for a special occasions, including an anniversary, birthday, wedding or birth of a child. He has sold them worldwide, as far away as England and Australia, and all over the U.S.

“It’s always something that means something to someone,” says Landino. “It’s always, ‘I want my birth year, I want my mother’s birth year’ - and the stories that go along with them are just as cool as the rings themselves.”

The ring that will encircle the groom’s left hand in Jamaica was made from a Morgan silver dollar from the best man’s grandfather’s collection. Special indeed.

To read the complete article, see:
Worth it’s weight in gold and silver: Clinton man takes old coins and makes heirloom rings by hand (www.shorelinetimes.com/articles/2016/02/02/life/doc56b0f6bf3e9e6125072085.txt?viewmode=fullstory)

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