Dual Tone Coin Choker with Kundan Florets and Ghungroo

The band on this choker is built from fine granulated work — row upon row of tiny soldered beads and twisted wire laid side by side, so the surface reads as texture rather than as flat sheet metal. It is a slow technique and an old one, and at a distance it gives silver a soft matte grain that a stamped band never has.

Set at the centre is a gold coin medallion, struck with a seated deity figure in the manner of the old temple-coin jewellery of south India, where coins — real ones at first, then struck replicas — were mounted into necklaces as both ornament and stored value. Flanking it along the band at intervals are small kundan florets in red, green and white, each one a cluster of stones in a raised bezel rather than a single setting.

The lower edge carries a fringe of ghungroo bells, and here the dual-tone idea is used properly: the bells alternate gold and silver along the whole length, so the fringe shimmers in two tones as it moves rather than reading as one solid line. That alternation is the detail that makes the piece, and it is the sort of thing that costs the maker time and is easy to leave out.

It fastens with a black braided cord at the back, finished with tassels, which slides to adjust. A choker lives or dies on fit — too loose and it drops onto the collarbone and stops being a choker — and a sliding cord handles that better than any clasp.

Wear it high against a plain neckline. The red-green-gold-silver combination is festive and specific, so it is at its best with a solid-colour silk saree, a plain lehenga, or black, rather than against a print. Keep earrings small; a wide band with a bell fringe already fills the neck and the eye.

Base metal is brass with gold and silver tone platings. The stones are paachi kundan — foil-backed, set into raised bezels, which is why they glow evenly rather than sparkling off facets.

A word on why coin jewellery looks the way it does. The originals were made from currency, strung or mounted while still legal tender, so a woman wore her savings where she could see them and nobody else could take them easily. The struck replicas that followed kept the look because the look had come to mean something — prosperity, and a household with something put by. That history is why a coin at the centre of a choker reads as substantial even when, as here, the coin is a gold-tone disc rather than gold.

The supplier's listing describes this as a necklace with matching earrings, but their photograph shows the choker alone. We check what is actually in the box and confirm with you before dispatch rather than guessing, which is part of why this piece is listed for WhatsApp enquiry rather than direct checkout.

About the Dual-Tone Finish

Dual-tone means two platings on one piece — a bright silver tone and a warm gold tone, applied to different parts of the same design so each section reads separately. It is harder than a single finish because the two have to be masked off from one another, and it is why these pieces show their detail so clearly: the eye separates the gold elements from the silver ones before it has read a single stone. The base metal underneath is brass, so this is plating rather than solid gold or silver.

Care

Put this on after perfume, hairspray and hand cream, and take it off before washing, swimming or sleeping. Wipe with a dry soft cloth and use a dry soft brush around the stone settings and between any pearls, where a cloth cannot reach. Store it in a zip-lock pouch — which is what the supplier themselves advise, and the single most effective thing for a plated piece, because it keeps humid air off the metal. Never use silver polish, dip cleaners or an ultrasonic cleaner.