WWII AUSTRALIAN COIN & COWRIE TRENCH ART

 

I found this on eBay complete with written text and I thought that bibliophiles might be the right group to share it with. It is a fairly ordinary WWII coin bracelet along with a cowrie shell necklace, but what is interesting is the backer board that these items are stitched onto.

The coin bracelet was made in Lae New Guinea by a soldier. The soldier explains that he got the coins for payday but could not spend them, so he played with them to create the bracelet. I am not certain if his not being able to spend the coins was because he could not spend Australian coins in New Guinea and he would have to wait until a leave to Australia or if there was nowhere to shop nearby. Also of note, is that the bracelet's catch and the links between the coins were probably made from coins. I just purchased this and will have to wait until it arrives to fully inspect it. However, jeweler supplies were not a thing that one would find on the front, so soldiers were inventive.

About Lae: Lae had an airstrip and cargo port prior to WWII so it was a strategic foothold and Japan occupied it from March 1942 until September 1943 when it fell to the allies. Lae just also happens to be the last airstrip that Amelia Airhart flew from before her disappearance at sea in 1937.

The cowrie shells were made on Morotai Island. Morotai is rugged and forested. The Japanese held it from early 1942 until surrender in September 1945. One Japanese holdout soldier was found on the island as late as 1974. While cowrie shells are not as interesting for a numismatic trench art collector, they perhaps might be interesting to a primitive money collector where shells were at one time used as money.

The star player without a doubt is the board that the jewelry is affixed on. The text gives tangible information behind the making of these items. So often there is a disconnect between the items we collect and their specific history. I have heard it said, if coins could only talk. For regular coin collectors that would mean what hands they passed through and what they might have been used to purchase but for the coin arts collectors, usually all information on why a coin was crafted into something else is generally lost. This hand penned board answers those questions for us.

For bibliophiles, text is of utmost importance. While that usually means a published book, this is special as the text is hand formed. It is certainly not a manuscript, but it is worthy to be included in a reference book. I also like that it is not written on a typewriter or by pencil. With close examination, irregularities can be detected in the ink with dark and light areas. I expect this was written with a nib, probably a fountain pen rather than pen and ink. While the ballpoint pen was being developed and refined during WWII, it was not available in stores in this country until October 1945. This also contributes to the nostalgia of this item, marking a very specific and important time period.

To read the complete lot description, see:
WWII SILVER AUSTRALIAN COIN BRACELET & COWRIE SHELL NECKLACE THEATER TRENCH ART (https://www.ebay.com/itm/145360147235)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web