I made my own bezel for a special find

cellrdwellr

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Hey everyone, so I dug up a 1772 half reale the other day with a hole in it. My immediate thoughts were to make me a nice piece of jewelry with it. Been waiting for a holed reale, as it was quite common for them to be worn, I and correct me if I'm wrong, but, I'm not sure they even HAD pockets back then :?: SO my choice was either hang it from the tiny hole, or put it in a bezel. I start looking around online at coin bezels, and right away I noticed they are way overpriced, just about everywhere. Almost the same price as an ounce of silver :shock: so to the finds drawer I go. I remember I had a religious pendant combo piece that was REALLY cool, and I didnt want to break it up, but I love custom making things, so this was something I was willing to do. As you will see, the bezel was a bit big, a half reale is close to the same diameter as a US dime, and that's what I used to help curl the bezel to the circumference I was happy with. I could have cleaned the silver further (it was water stained black when I found it) but wanted to keep a patina of sorts to help accentuate the toning on the reale. So at this point, it fits pretty well, it was clanging around a bit, which I expected, but I firmly believed it would never fall out of the bezel. To bring it a step further, I remembered the hole in it, maybe I could fashion an O ring to further secure it, in the event it DOES come out of the bezel. Back to the finds drawer. Next decision, silver or gold? :D I had a perfect 14K (post says 14K but the leaf has a 12K stamp on it so I think its 12&14) earring that had an almost PERFECT o ring already soldered on it. I went with gold, well cause, who doesnt like gold? Yes it is technically clashing, but I LOVE the look of it. The fact that I hand crafted the bezel out of a few different finds, gives it an awesome personal touch. Very happy with it. I have a chain on order already. The chain was only 22$, I got a 4MM mariner link 24" length. Funny the bezels were almost the same price as the necklace :lol: not expensive, but way overpriced IMO. What's most of those bezels weigh, a couple grams each? Silver was around 50 cents a GRAM last I checked :shock: (that was some time ago though...) Anyway, hope you like it, didn't take all that long to make, but it sure was fun. Good luck out there, and happy hunting!
 

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That's a great idea, I found my 1/2 Reale a couple years ago but worn a lot,only a few letters readable .but is a reale.im going to do the thing. Thanks for the post and idea.
 
That's a great idea, I found my 1/2 Reale a couple years ago but worn a lot,only a few letters readable .but is a reale.im going to do the thing. Thanks for the post and idea.

Man Jeff that’s awesome, both the reale and the finished piece!

Thank you both! I actually did a little more work to it, I took the silver O ring off and made my own o ring out of an old sterling ring. Also receieved the chain today so its just about finished! Just waiting for my silver solder to come in to do some final touches. Appreciate the feedback!
 

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