Published on by Olivier Maupas-Sehikyan · Signet rings
Some gold coins are simply waiting to live differently. One day a client walked into my workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes, with a Napoleon 20-franc coin and a very clear wish: to wear it on his finger. Not in a safe, not at the bottom of a drawer. On his finger, every day, like a companion.
A Napoleon 20-franc coin, steeped in history
I remember the moment he set it down on my bench. A small, discreet disc of gold, with its engraved profile and fine lettering, patinated by time just as it should be. You sense at once that such a coin has travelled through different eras and passed from hand to hand. It was heavy with emotion, and I understood that before he had told me anything more.
The moment it came into my hands, I knew this Napoleon signet ring would be a project apart. My role was not to transform it at any cost. It was to give it a second life, while respecting each of its engravings and each of its reflections. This kind of commission thrills me, because it brings together the memory of an object and the precise gesture of the craftsman.
From gold coin to bespoke signet ring
The idea is simple to state, and far more delicate to carry out: to round the coin so that it follows the shape of its future owner's finger. A coin is flat, a finger is not. The whole challenge lies in moving from one to the other without damaging the design, without erasing what gives the coin its character.
We began by talking, then by measuring. The size of the finger, the way my client wears his jewellery, the look he wanted his signet ring to have: these details guide everything that follows. A bespoke signet ring cannot be adjusted after the fact. It is thought through from the very first appointment, together with the client, around the bench.
That is also why I insist on turning a gold coin into a piece of jewellery in my own workshop rather than entrusting the work to other hands. When an object carries so much meaning, I prefer to know every stage from the inside.
Work at the bench: rounding without erasing
Everything took place here, in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, from start to finish. Gold is a generous metal, but it does not like to be rushed. I therefore heated it to soften it, then curved it in small stages around a mandrel. At each pass, I checked that the relief was not being flattened and that the circle remained perfectly even.
Traditional and modern techniques
Both worlds took turns at my bench. The traditional gesture lets you feel the metal, and know when it resists and when it yields. Modern measuring tools, for their part, guarantee the regularity of the band and the precision of its diameter. One cannot do without the other, and it is this partnership that allows the details of the coin to be kept intact while fitting it perfectly to the finger.
Respecting every engraving
The profile, the lettering, the tiny reliefs: nothing was to be sacrificed. I examined the coin under a loupe after each stage, the way you reread a sentence to be sure it keeps its meaning. Then came the finishing: the inside of the band was polished so that it slides on without discomfort, the edges were refined, and the gold regained its light through a gentle polish. The aim was never to make it shine excessively, but to let the coin speak for itself.
A gold coin that becomes a signet ring does not lose its story. It simply changes place: it leaves the hand that kept it to join the one that wears it.
An 18-carat gold signet ring made to last
What I love about an 18-carat gold signet ring is the way it ages with the person who wears it. Gold does not tarnish, it acquires a patina, recording the life of the finger it sits on. And if, years later, an adjustment or a touch of polishing is needed, a jeweller can always take the piece back in hand without betraying it.
The day the signet ring joined its owner, I felt what I feel at every handover: a mixture of quiet pride and reserve. What was said in that moment belongs to him. I can simply say that watching a coin, flat and silent only yesterday, slide onto the finger of the person for whom it had been rounded is among the finest moments of my work.
Let's talk about your coin at the workshop
Perhaps you too keep a gold coin you do not know what to do with, a precious keepsake sleeping somewhere. It does not necessarily have to stay hidden. A signet ring, a ring, a pendant: there is often a fitting way to give it a place in your everyday life again.
If this story speaks to you, come and see me at my workshop in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes. We will take the time to discuss it, to look at your coin together and to imagine what it might become. With no obligation, simply to talk about what matters to you.
