"1300 years ago, Arab traders travelled to West Africa to swap salt for gold. The traders needed the gold to mint the coins that sustained their economy. The Sudanese needed salt to stay alive. They lived 1000 miles from any source so they traded it for gold weight for weight.
The Arab coin was the dinar. The Byzantines had the bezant. Before the bezant came the solidus. Previous to that, in 49BC, it was Julius Caesar’s aureus. More recently, in Western Europe, it was the thaler or half thaler.
Rainer Beneke has minted his own coins – each one the exact replica of those past and present. Same dimension, same weight, same metal. Close your eyes. This is the way a thaler would have felt to a jeweller in Hamburg. And this solidus... it’s for the artichoke salesman, working in the heat and dust of the agora.
Beneke has inscribed text on each coin. Text that seems anti-money, that seems to suggest we step back from the rush and buzz of life. That we reflect, or if not reflect, that we make space, that we live for now....... click to read more"
Breton Dukes, 2015
1. Stater, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $320
2. Aureus, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $1,880
Now is the golden age
3. ½ Thaler, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $400
I was looking back to see
If you were looking back at me
To see me looking back at you
4. Hecte, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $580
Listen
5. Tetradrachm, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $400
8 4 8 4 / If there is a fork in the road, take it
6. Stater, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $320
Take more time, cover less ground
7. Thaler, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $520
8. Stater, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $320
Hunger for sense not cents nonsense
9. Tetradrachm, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $400
And others haven’t a clue what time it is
or where it goes or even where the clock is
10. Drachma, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $220
Kicking up mischief / walking the wire
11. Dinar, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $1,180
If not now / when
12. 1 oz Bullion, pure gold, 22ct gold toggle, diamond $7,800
When do we lose the ability to step back and get
a sense of our own ridiculousness
13. Aureus, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $1,880
Listen to the drums beat
14. Solidus, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $1,180
Abundance / not what we have but what we enjoy
15. 1 Hecte and 5 Hemihecte, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $2,400
16. Solidus, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $1,180
True idleness takes courage
17. ½ Thaler, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $400
A conversation punctuated by leisurely
comfortable silences
18. Thaler, pure silver, 18ct gold toggle $800
Superman you are tired
Superman you need a rest
from all the constant flying
and bullets bouncing off your chest,
the world goes on without you
we’ll be all right without you
for a while SJD
19. Stater, pure silver, sterling silver toggle $320
20. Late Bezant, pure gold, 18ct gold toggle $980
Seize the day
All pendants on coloured polyester cord / braid
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